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— _ 

Road  Making  and  Maintenance ; 


The  latter  wrought  into  the  texture  and  structure  of  the  road 
A return -to  first  principles. 


LECTURE 

BY 

James  Bradford  Olcott, 

OF  ' 

SOUTH  MANCHESTER,  CONN. 


WITH  ACCOMPANYING  DISCUSSION  AND  AN  ILLUSTRATED  APPENDIX 
PREPARED  BY  MR.  OLCOTT. 


From  the  Report  of  the 

MASSACHUSETTS  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE,  1891. 
1892. 


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£..L5,!1 Q.I.\ 

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ROAD  MAKING  AND  MAINTENANCE.  - THE  LATTER 
WROUGHT  INTO  THE  TEXTURE  AND  STRUCTURE 
OF  THE  ROAD. 


A RETURN  TO  FIRST  PRINCIPLES. 


BY  JAMES  BRADFORD  OLCOTT,  SOUTH  MANCHESTER,  CONN. 


The  truths  of  stone-road  structure  are  as  old  as  the  hills. 
Every  road  that  runs  over  a knoll  of  good  gravel  reveals  to 
the  industrial  student  the  highway  science  of  pulverized 
rock  in  unequal  sizes,  compacted  and  fixed  solid  in  their  own 
matrices.  These  naturally  perfect  bits  of  road  are  never 
wet  or  loose,  because  their  granulated  substance  cannot  be 
softened  by  water,  and  broken  by  frost ; they  are  rarely  dry 
because  of  capillary  moisture ; they  are  always  smooth, 
because  the  pebbles  composing  them  are  hard  enough  to 
endure  friction,  and  because  there  are  no  stones  large 
enough  to  jolt  the  wheels  of  vehicles. 

Hence  gravel  knolls  in  the  road  are  full  of  instruction  for 
the  artificial  road  maker.  His  endeavor  will  be  to  manufac- 
ture a gravel  and  a bed  for  it  as  good  or  better  than  the  best 
natural  products.  A coarse  gravel  is  wanted,  that  will  knit 
and  set  in  a clean  masonic  structure,  nearly  or  quite  as  solid 
as  the  original  rock,  and  in  the  form  of  a floor  convenient 
for  travel.  This  floor  will  be  a roof,  also,  repelling  the 
water  of  rains  and  snows  from  its  dry  earthen  foundations. 
All  theories,  doctrines,  systems  and  principles  of  stone-road 
making  that  are  good  for  anything  originated  among  ob- 
served facts  in  nature,  like  the  road  texture  of  the  gravel 
knolls  above  quoted,  and  may  be  brought  back  to  them  for 
correction  and  strengthening. 

That  isolated  stones  will  settle  in  the  earth  by  their  own 
superior  gravity,  and  without  the  aid  of  Darwin’s  angle- 
worms,  was  known  to  man  as  long  ago  as  when  the  cities  he 


1 24 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


hated  were  levelled  so  that  not  one  stone  remained  upon 
another.  Gardening  and  farming  tribes  in  the  earliest  ages 
must  have  seen  that  scattering  stones  would  sink  in  the  soil 
by  their  own  weight,  and  prehistoric  log-rollers  — the  first 
broad  cart  wheels  — were  doubtless  used  by  the  ancients  to 
settle  the  pebbles  rooted  up  by  the  plough. 

This  leads  us  to  the  idea  that  dislocated  stones,  wandering 
from  the  road-bed,  are  so  much  lost  to  the  body  and  cohe- 
rence of  the  fabric ; and  that  any  intrusion  of  earth  or 
clay  in  the  substance  of  a stone-road  is  a divisor,  an  enter- 
ing wedge  of  decayed  material,  mud-mortar,  scamped  mason- 
work,  an  element  of  disintegration,  and  one  of  the  earliest 
symptoms  of  the  total  destruction  of  a highway. 

Our  roads  are  wretched,  and,  while  road  literature  is  of  the 
same  muddy  structure  and  texture,  our  endeavors  to  amend 
practice  must  be  largely  experimental,  and,  till  we  get  our 
heads  clear,  should  be  entered  upon  with  extreme  caution. 
It  will  be  far  cheaper  to  study  the  blunders  already  before  us 
than  to  make  a new  spread  of  our  own  in  search  of  expe- 
rience. 

In  union  there  is  strength.  This  should  be  the  stone- 
road  maker’s  motto  and  law.  He  must  see  to  this  in 
preparing  a place  for  his  road  materials.  Let  it  be  a drained 
concave  bed  in  the  earth  he  has  to  make  a road  over. 
Where  the  bottom  is  more  loamy  than  sand  or  gravel,  there 
may  be  occasion  for  artificial  drainage. 

The  road  principles  hinted  at  in  the  accompanying  engrav- 
ing are  too  various  to  be  conveyed  on  paper.  The  art  of 
road  making,  like  the  working  of  metals,  comes  only  by 
thought,  practice,  experience  and  labor.  Grass,  earths, 
sand,  gravels  and  rocks  are  all  manageable  by  methods  in 
strict  accord  with  their  great  variety  of  natures.  Skill 
results  from  the  personal  handling  of  road  materials.  The 
children  of  a generation  that  has  built  fifteen  hundred 
thousand  miles  of  iron  and  steel  roads  on  wooden  foundations , 
should  enter  the  field  of  common  road  making  modestly  and 
with  caution.  The  writer  has  no  local  road  advice  to  offer 
to  places  and  persons  he  has  not  seen  and  examined.  His 
words  are  to  be  applied  at  the  reader’s  risks  and  charges. 

The  turf-gutters  in  the  picture  will  shed  water  from  road 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


225 


foundations  as  mud  will  not.  That  concave  road-bed  might 
need  to  vary  in  depth  from  ten  to  forty  inches,  or  more, 
according  to  local  conditions.  Whoever  is  not  familiar  with 
the  study  of  roads  may  need  to  turn  to  the  engraving  in  the 
progress  of  this  essay,  or  refer  to  the  accompanying  Appen- 
dix, with  illustrations,  and  should  give  much  time  also  to 
the  structure  of  old  and  new  highway  work  beneath  the 
surface. 

The  road-bed  of  the  picture  may  be  of  any  width,  with  or 
without  foot-paths.  In  the  worst  situations  the  triple 
drainage  will  be  necessary ; in  others,  one  or  two  lines  of 
pipe  will  do ; in  still  others,  natural  drainage  may  be 
trusted.  Truth  is  unfit  for  us  till  it  is  fitted  to  our  circum- 
stances. 

In  villages,  city  suburbs  and  the  open  country,  wherever 
the  friction  of  travel  is  not  too  severe,  gutters  of  fine  grass 
over  gravel  will  utilize  what  else  would  be  dust  or  mud,  in 
producing  merchantable  turf.  The  flattened  ellipse  is  the 
strongest  and  most  economic  form  of  stone  in  the  road-bed. 
Well  filled,  these  road  arches  never  “kick,”  and  the  stone 
of  them  do  not  sink  or  break  loose  from  one  another.  The 
bottom  of  clean,  coarse  sand,  or  fine,  clean  gravel,  of  a dry, 
loose  quality,  that  would  be  entirely  unfit  for  the  surface  of 
a road,  is,  when  puddled  solid  in  the  clay  bed,  admirably 
fit  to  hold  a stone-road  up,  while  preventing  the  clay  of  the 
subsoil  from  rising. 

Gillespie*  says  of  sand:  “This  material,  when  it  fills  an 
excavation,  possesses  the  valuable  properties  of  incompressi- 
bility, and  of  assuming  a new  position  of  equilibrium  and 
stability  when  any  portion  of  it  is  disturbed..  To  secure 
these  qualities  in  their  highest  degree,  the  sand  should  be 
very  carefully  freed  from  the  least  admixture  of  earth  or 
clay,  and  the  largest  grains  should  not  exceed  one-sixth 
of  an  inch  in  diameter,  nor  the  smallest  be  less  than  one- 
twenty-fourtli  of  an  inch.” 

The  above  description  answers  for  coarse,  sharp,  masonic 
sand,  suitable  for  heavy  stone- work ; every  expert  mortar- 
man  or  farmer  is  a judge  of  it.  There  are  banks  of  fine 
gravel,  equally  good  for  the  foundation  of  broken-stone 

* “Roads  and  Railroads,”  New  York,  1858 


226 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


roads.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that,  for  adding  depth 
and  security  to  the  best  road  work,  sands  and  gravels 
devoid  of  all  suspicion  of  loam  or  clay-producing  material 
are  fully  equal  to  any  possible  quality  of  stone,  when 
bedded  below  all  chance  of  wheel-friction.  This  value 
of  sand  and  gravel  for  the  best  roads  over  clay,  brings  them 
well  within  the  line  of  profitable  railway  commodities. 

The  reason  why  cobble-stone  and  granite-block  pavements 
so  frequently  settle  out  of  shape  and  make  a rough,  jolting 
road,  is  because  the  sand  used  is  dirty,  rarely  or  never  com- 
pacted by  trampling  or  puddling,  and  in  cities  is  often  dug 
deeply  in  holes  and  ditches  for  pipe  repairs,  etc.,  just  before 
and  while  the  pavement  is  being  laid  or  relaid.  In  such 
cases  cement  finds  opportunities  that  would  not  appear  if  the 
sand  were  faithfully  and  intelligently  treated. 

Beginners  in  road  making  may  need  to  be  told  that  fresh 
deposits  of  sand  shrink  in  settlement,  and  how  the  shrinkage 
can  be  hastened  by  rains,  artificial  waterings  and  the  tramp- 
ling of  horses  and  cart  wheels  in  a concave  road-bed.  A boy 
and  one  horse  will  do  the  work  of  many  paving  rammers. 
The  firmness  of  sand  under  water  is  well  shown  by  the  fine 
wheeling  on  some  sandy  beaches  while  the  tide  is  out. 

Where  neither  sand,  gravel  or  coal  ashes  is  to  be  had,  and 
a solid  road  of  broken  stone  is  desired  upon  a clay  subsoil, 
the  drainage  of  the  clay  must  be  thorough,  and  the  most 
scrupulous  pains  taken  to  have  the  stone  fine  enough  to  fill 
its  own  crevices  perfectly,  and  resist  the  ingress  of  the 
insinuating  clay.  Not  only  the  bottom  of  the  stone-road 
body,  but  the  whole  substance  and  texture  of  the  crushed- 
stone  structure,  must  be  impermeable  to  clay  or  mud  in  any 
form,  and  the  water  of  rains  also,  that  might  else  wash  sur- 
face filth  and  clay  silt  among  the  broken  stone.  The  per- 
manence of  the  road  depends  on  absolute  faithfulness  in  these 
particulars.  In  tjiis  light  the  value  of  the  bottom  filling  of 
sand  will  be  seen,  because  is  is  so  much  easier  than  stone  to 
handle,  and  in  its  place  even  more  effective. 

It  is  impossible  to  pass,  in  this  connection,  the  modern 
doctrine  of  painstaking  ‘‘porosity”  in  stone-road  structure, 
without  condemning  it  as  a ruinous  fallacy,  chargeable  with 
ninety-nine  one-hundredths  of  our  costly  failures  in  pro- 


.No.  4.] 


COlINTliY  LOADS. 


227 


ducing  either  durable  or  smooth  roads  of  broken  stone.  It 
puts  a weakness  in  theory  just  where  the  carelessness  of 
workmen  is  most  liable  to  be  fatal  to  the  integrity  of  the  road. 

Quoting  or  condensing  from  Penfold,  a contemporary  of 
M’Adarn,  Gillespie  well  describes  the  behavior  of  broken 
stone  in  “even  sizes,”  with  open  joints,  as  we  have  been 
laying  them  for  years  in  sight  of  everybody  : — 

“If  a thick  coat  be  laid  on  at  once,  there  is  a very  great 
destruction  of  the  material  before  it  becomes  consolidated, 
if  it  ever  does  so.  The  stones  will  not  allow  one  another  to 
be  quiet,  but  are  continually  elbowing  each  other  and  driv- 
ing their  neighbors  to  the  right  and  to  the  left.  This  con- 
stant motion  rapidly  wears  olf  the  angular  points  and 
reduces  the  stone  to  a spherical  shape,  which,  in  conjunction 
with  the  amount  of  mud  and  powder  produced,  destroys  the 
possibility  of  any  him  aggregation,  and  the  road  never 
attains  its  proper  condition  of  hardness.” 

The  above  scrap  was  published  in  London  in  1835,  but  it 
will  pass  for  recent  American  road  history,  and  can  be  read 
in  the  unsound  structure  of  our  broken-stone  roads  almost 
anywhere. 

European  malpractices,  discovered  at  home,  are  played 
on  American  cities  and  villages.  It  is  not  the  road-mender 
alone  who  needs  to  be  taught,  but  our  whole  people.  The 
road-mender  has  grand  chances  to  learn  from  his  own  and 
his  fellow’s  blunders ; but  who  is  teaching  our  people  ? 
Boards  of  education  have  robbed  us  of  the  picture  in  the 
spelling-book  showing  the  superior  “ virtue  in  stones,”  but 
boards  of  health  ought  to  save  us  from  street-tilth  leaching 
through  “ porous”  roads  into  our  cellars. 

Stone  road  work  that  is  “porous,”  while  at  the  same 
time  “unyielding”  and  “solid,”  seems  to  have  been  first 
advocated  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  on  whose  dry  bottoms 
fabrics  of  that  peculiar  description  may  .have  the  air  and 
water  arrangements  crushed  and  ground  out  of  them  in  time 
by  dint  of  heavy  travel ; and  this  without  other  loss  than 
by  bruising  the  heels  of  taxpayers  over  rough  surfaces,  and 
costs  for  maintenance. 

Many  other  cities  — used  to  cubic  yards  of  ventilated 
stone  — admit  the  honeycomb  impeachment.  They  tried  the 


228 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


hollow  structure  because  it  was  said  to  be  “ scientific.”  It 
made  a show  of  rough  road  quickly,  and  was  much  less 
trouble  than  mixing  the  different  sizes  of  stone  together,  for 
really  solid  work,  after  they  had  been  assorted  according  to 
municipal  orders  at  the  crusher. 

But  no  thoughtful  city  with  a clay  subsoil,  considering  the 
money  it  has  sunk  in  stone  gone  wandering  amidst  the  mud 
of  its  rough  and  dirty  thoroughfares,  can  regard  that  porous 
doctrine  with  anything  but  disgust.  It  won’t  hold  water. 
Hadn’t  we  better  go  into  asphalt?  Is  it  worth  while  to 
try  playing  that  porous  swindle  on  the  country  at  this  late 
day,  even  in  the  compound  form  of  “ Telford-Macadam  ? ” 

Telford  was  a shepherd’s  son,  who  learned  the  stone- 
mason’s trade  in  his  youth,  and  became  a great  engineer. 
He  believed  in  setting  large  cobble  stones,  points  upwards, 
to  stay  the  middle  of  his  track.  That  gave  employ  to  the 
paving  fraternity,  and  strengthened  his  gangs  with  men 
who  loved  stone.  This  was  good,  but  where  is  the 
evidence  that  he  contrived  hungry  open-work  in  the  bottom 
of  Holyhead  Pike  to  swallow  all  his  surface  finish?  Nobody 
who  studies  the  slow  geologies  of  the  holes  in  stone-roads 
to-day,  can  believe  the  eminent  engineer  gave  his  name  to  a 
hollowness  that  every  common  laborer  of  that  time  would 
detect.  He  must  have  filled  that  with  sand  or  gravel. 

The  magnitude  of  M’ Adam’s  job,  with  thirty  thousand 
miles  of  abominable  stone  roads,  accumulated  by  centuries 
of  mismanagement,  and  waiting  his  revolutionary  hand, 
compelled  him  to  say  to  the  committee  of  Parliament 
that  he  was  not  lifting  but  four  inches  of  their  horrid  old 
highways,  and  breaking  the  stones  of  them  over  again. 
That  was  as  deep  as  he  dared  let  government  know  he  was 
thinking  at  that  time.  The  dirty  bottoms  of  stone  he  left 
underneath  might  be  construed  into  evidence  that  he 
approved  that  way  of  building  a road,  if  he  had  not 
expressly  denied  it.  Yet  that  is  all  the  foundation  we 
have  for  coupling  the  names  of  Telford  and  M’Adam 
together  in  a compound  “system.”  He  saw  the  cover 
for  defective  work  in  the  use  of  large  stones  in  the  road- 
bed, and  in  theory  and  practice  would  have  none  of 
them.  Break  the  stone  into  homogeneous  rock  gravel, 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


229 


and  allow  no  earthy  admixtures,  is  the  key-note  of  his 
testimony. 

In  a time  of  general  depression,  with  road  management 
cut  into  small  “trusts,”  administered  by  the  inefficient  and 
dishonest,  he  gave  starving  cottagers  work  at  their  own 
doors,  and  for  the  first  time  in  English  history  made  easy 
communication  possible  throughout  the  kingdom.  That 
small  middle-men,  contractors,  local  ignobles,  and  even 
engineers,  whose  trade  he  was  giving  back  to  the  people, 
were  jealous  of  and  misrepresented  such  a figure  in  road 
history  as  that,  cannot  be  doubted. 

As  for  a “ system,”  M’Adam  had  none.  He  looked  at  his 
work,  and  did  the  best  he  could  for  it  in  each  case.  His  son 
James,  — who  afterwards  accepted  the  baronetcy  the  father 
refused, — when  asked  by  Parliament  if  he  worked  under 
his  father’s  “system,”  preferred  to  say,  “on  my  father’s 
principles  for  making  roads.”  M’ Adam’s  road-principles 
were  new  road-brooms  of  fresh  ideas  for  sweeping  every 
corner  of  the  Commonwealth,  displacing  the  venal  agents 
of  an  ignorant  government.  His  youth  was  spent  in  America, 
and  he  seems  to  have  carried  the  best  of  our  revolution  home 
with  him. 

M’ Adam’s  own  statement  was  this  : — 

“ In  every  road  I have  been  obliged  to  alter  the  manage- 
ment, according  to  the  situation  and  sometimes  according  to 
the  finances.” 

He  tried  to  break  existing  systems,  and  to  induce  road- 
men and  governments  to  look  at  things  as  they  were,  and  do 
whatever  was  necessary.  It  was  the  printer’s  title  to  his  col- 
lected pamphlets  that  gave  him  the  repute  of  a “system.” 

For  the  much-mooted  question  of  the  size  of  road-stone 
he  had  this  settlement,  as  applicable  now  as  then : — 

liIf  you  made  the  road  of  all  six-ounce  stone  it  would  he  a 
rough  road,  hut  it  is  impossible  hut  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  stone  must  he  under  that  size” 

Six-ounce  or  egg-sized  stone  were  as  large  as  he  wanted 
the  largest  stones  to  be  in  the  top  four  inches  of  the  roads 
he  mended.  In  breaking  all  to  that  weight,  or  below,  there 
would  certainly  be  plenty  of  stone  chips.  No  thought  of 
a porous  texture  could  have  been  in  his  mind.  That  any 


230 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


one  could  seriously  entertain  such  an  absurdity  as  intentional 
4 4 porosity  ” in  a 44  solid”  road  of  broken  stone,  would  have 
been  incredible  to  him.  His  gangs  of  men,  women  and 
children, — whole  families  sometimes, — wrought  by  the 
side  of  the  way,  lifting  two  or  three  yards  of  the  old  road 
out  of  the  mud  at  a time,  breaking  stone  at  ten  pence  per 
ton  by  measurement,  and  immediately  replacing  them  hand- 
somely on  the  highway.  The  shining  contrast  between  the 
old  and  new  work  was  a powerful  argument  in  its  favor,  and 
the  welcome  idea  spread  like  wildfire. 

He  reduced  the  expenses  of  the  road-trusts  he  consoli- 
dated ; but,  as  his  figures  showed  three-fourths  hand-labor, 
instead  of  three-fourths  team-work,  as  formerly,  we  can  see 
how  the  old  road  barnacles  must  have  hated  him  for  teach- 
ing the  people. 

The  most  of  M’Adam’s  sayings  we  see  quoted  now-a-days 
are  used  in  such  a way  as  to  make  nonsense  of  them.  His 
injunction  not  to  break  stone  on  the  road  referred  to  his 
wholesale  treatment  of  rough  road-work,  which  could  not 
be  done  in  the  muck  of  old  road-beds,  without  soiling  the 
fresh  fractures  of  his  new-made  material.  But  there  are 
very  many  times  when  the  hammering  of  cruel  projections 
from  the  surface  of  our  stone-roads  would  relieve  men  and 
animals  from  torment  at  a very  cheap  rate,  — if  M’Adam 
had  not  forbidden  it.  Considerable  roughness  is  required 
in  our  practice  to  overcome  the  dread  of  44  resurfacing,”  and 
make  the  people  cry  out  for  another  coat  of  rough  stone,  as 
well  as  to  assist  in  producing  what  is  called  a 4 4 bond  ” for 
it. 

M’Adam  despised  any  form  of  dirt  among  his  metals  : — 

“Nothing  is  to  be  laid  on  the  clean  stone  under  the  pretence 
of  binding .” 

With  his  boulders  broken  fine  enough  to  fill  their  own 
interstices,  there  was  no  need  of  that  “pretence.” 

He  did  direct  that  broken  stone,  when  applied  to  a road, 
must  be  carefully  44  scattered  over  the  surface,  one  shovelful 
following  another,  and  spreading  over  a considerable  space” 
This  was  very  sensible  in  M’ Adam’s  roadside  practice, 
where  he  was  liable  to  find  all  sorts  of  stones  — some  softer 
than  others — gathered  from  the  land  and  dumped  into  the 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


231 


old  roads  he  was  reworking,  so  that  his  broken  rocks  needed 
spreading  widely  to  mix  all  sorts  together.  He  feared  that 
a shovelful  of  very  hard  or  very  soft  rock,  by  wearing  un- 
equally, might  make  a lump  or  a hole  in  his  road.  But  the 
produce  of  our  quarries  is  or  may  be  so  uniform  in  quality 
that  the  obsolete  precaution  has  no  reason  in  it  for  us ; yet 
we  -see  the  slow-spreading  motion  surviving  in  our  road- 
craft,  while  vital  matters  are  forgotten. 

For  once  in  the  world  there  was  a road-mender  who  actu- 
ally made  the  wheeling  better.  People  drove  out  of  their 
way  to  see  it  done,  and  were  happy  to  assist  in  testing  and 
trampling  the  new  work  solid.  While  every  neighborhood 
wrought  before  its  own  doors  and  was  making  its  own  roads 
clean  and  sound,  fit  for  any  woman  or  child  to  walk  upon  in 
muddy  weather,  we  may  be  sure  there  was  generous  rivalry 
between  the  different  sections,  and  many  merry  challenges 
and  blithesome  rallyings  as  the  good  work  went  on. 

Precisely  when  the  salt  of  M’ Adam’s  example  was  lost, 
and  greed  and  craft  got  possession  of  the  roads  again, 
appears  in  no  history.  But  a change  is  noted  in  one  of  Mary 
Russell  Mitford’s  English  sketches.  She  describes  it  as  a 
“misfortune”  that  “has  befallen  us  underfoot.  . . . For 
the  last  six  months  some  part  or  other  of  the  highway  has 
been  impassable  for  any  feet  except  such  as  are  shod  by  the 
blacksmith  ; and  even  the  four-footed  people  who  wear  iron 
shoes  make  wry  faces  — poor  things!  — at  those  stones, 
enemies  to  man  and  beast.  ...  I never  wish  to  see  a 
road-mender  again.” 

We  only  need  to  be  reminded  here  how  the  rough  road- 
menders,  in  every  form,  from  pig-pen  sods,  tracks  of  excru- 
ciating rocks,  spruce  and  granite  blocks  and  the  smoke  of 
coal-tar  torment,  have  run  riot  over  this  American  land,  till 
the  people  are  driven  again  to  learn  to  mend  their  own  roads. 

Never  reprinted  in  this  country,  the  scarce  writings  * of 
M’Adam  are  still  our  best  resource  for  the  genuine  science 
of  broken-stone  roads.  With  nothing  whatever  to  sell,  he 
could  afford  to  tell  the  truth,  as  follows  : — 

“Having  secured  the  soil  from  under-water,  the  road- 

* Thanks  to  Prof.  W.  H.  Brewer,  of  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  for  the  use  of 
one  of  them. 


232 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


maker  is  next  to  secure  it  from  rain-water,  by  a solid  road 
made  of  clean  dry  stone  or  flint,  so  selected,  prepared  and 
laid,  as  to  be  perfectly  impervious  to  water ; and  this  can- 
not be  effected  unless  the  greatest  care  be  taken  that  no 
earth,  clay,  chalk  or  other  matter  that  will  hold  or  conduct 
water,  be  mixed  with  the  broken  stone,  which  must  be  so 
prepared  and  laid  as  to  unite  with  its  own  angles  into  a firm, 
compact,  impenetrable  body.” 

Find  room  for  a “ porous  ” spot  in  that,  if  you  can. 

In  the  accounts  of  the  road-trusts  he  overhauled,  M’Adam 
saw  well  enough  how  figures  could  be  made  to  lie,  and  so 
preferred  to  avoid  giving  mathematical  color  to  suspicion  in 
his  writings  ; yet  his  meaning  is  plain.  He  had  unbounded 
faith  in  wrought  stone  over  dry  earth.  But  who  has  seen 
his  ideas  exemplified  in  any  quarter  of  the  world  ? Let  him 
repeat : — 

“ The  thickness  of  such  [stone]  road  is  immaterial  as  to 
its  strength  for  carrying  weight;  this  object  is  already 
obtained  by  providing  a dry  surface  over  which  the  [stone] 
road  is  to  be  placed  as  a covering  or  roof,  to  preserve  it  in 
that  state;  experience  having  shown  that , if  water  passes 
through  a road  and  fills  the  native  soil , the  [stone]  road , 
whatever  may  be  its  thickness , loses  its  support  and  goes  to 
pieces.” 

“Encyclopedia  Britannica,”  while  admitting  “road-scrap- 
ings ” among  “ binding  material,”  declares  that  “ The  name 
Ml  Adam  often  characterizes  roads  on  which  all  his  precepts 
are  disregarded.” 

That  broken-stone  road  may  be  a “ roof,”  shedding  water 
from  its  own  foundations,  as  well  as  a “smooth  floor,” 
affording  pleasant  wheeling  at  all  seasons,  were  among 
M’ Adam’s  principles  and  practices,  and  are  what  we  want 
to-day ; but  we  can  reach  no  such  result  as  that  in  the  way 
of  porous,  crumbling  bottom-work,  a ventilated  mid-struc- 
ture, and  the  chip-stone  which  should  fill  its  crevices  reserved 
for  top-dressing. 

Our  modern  way  of  screening  and  assorting  road  metals 
— so  abundantly  illustrated  in  rock-crusher  circulars  — has 
left  our  roads  open  at  the  top  to  water  and  filth,  open  at  the 
bottom  to  clay,  and  open  everywhere  to  the  question 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


233 


whether  the  taxpayers  are  being  blundered  or  cheated  out 
of  their  money. 

M’Adam  complained  bitterly  in  his  time  of  the  misappro- 
priation of  road  funds.  He  found  those  in  authority  too  ig- 
norant to  govern  properly ; and  men  are  saying  now  that  our 
streets  furnish  fields  for  the  expert  politician  rather  than  for 
the  expert  road-maker.  The  records  of  boodle  governments 
could  never  be  so  black  without  engineering  sharpers  to 
figure  for  them.  And  the  worst  of  our  predicament  is,  we 
are  often  led  to  hound  the  honest  man  to  death,  while  we  let 
malefactors  go  free.  The  only  remedy  is  for  the  whole 
people  to  study  the  highway  to  the  bottom,  so  that  bogus 
operators  may  be  restrained  or  detected  on  the  spot.  The 
art  of  road  making  in  common  schools  would  make  a good 
foundation  for  political  economy  in  high  schools. 

The  amateur  road  student  will  not  understand  the  forces 
that  are  moving  us,  without  considering  the  rise  of  road 
machinery,  and  a keen  study  of  its  trade  circulars.  While 
metropolitan  cities  are  discovering  — by  the  shrewd  obser- 
vations of  some  common  laborer  — that  the  broad  tread  of 
the  weightiest  steam  roller  will  not  pop  toads  in  a sixteen- 
inch  mass  of  ‘ ‘ even-sized  stone,”  — ^half  cubic  air,  — it  dawns 
upon  the  minds  of  sharp  road  machinists  that  the  stones  must 
be  applied  in  layers  so  thin  that  they  can  be  rolled  separately 
or  crushed  flat,  and  partly  in  powder,  for  which  the  steam 
roller  is  said  to  be  indispensable. 

At  the  same  time,  the  maiden  village  (with  a lot  of  suspi- 
cious farmers  in  her  composition),  beginning  to  think  of 
being  a city  some  day,  requires  a different  treatment  to 
make  trade  good.  There  a single  thin  layer  of  broken 
stone,  in  the  form  of  “an  arch  over  the  clay,”  is  recom- 
mended. This  looks  “ scientific,”  makes  a better  road  for  a 
little  while,  — till  the  clay  begins  to  break  up,  — and  “ pays 
well”  for  the  beginners  of  the  “resurfacing”  business. 
But  every  one  should  remember  these  are  no  fair  tests  of 
the  principles  of  M’Adam,  or  of  the  far  older  truths  in 
geologic  deposits,  always  open  to  the  study  of  peasant 
and  scholar. 

Without  detracting  at  all  from  the  just  deserts  of  enter- 
prising road  machinists,  it  is  evident  now,  as  in  M’ Adam’s 


234 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


time,  that  we  ought  to  give  hand  labor  a better  chance.  We 
must  make  better  tools,  furnish  more  thorough  training,  con- 
tinuous employment  and  higher  wages  for  precision  and 
skill,  that  will  attract  expert  hands  and  acute  minds  into  the 
stone-road  business.  Men  are  wanted  who  can  appreciate 
M’ Adam’s  principles,  and  apply  them  to  the  highway.  It 
is  hard  telling  whether  our  roads  suffer  most  from  ignorant 
leaders  and  labor,  or  inattention  of  the  public. 

To  read  the  claims  of  our  steam-roller  brethren  for  their 
machines,  makes  one  wonder  how  either  Telford  or  M’Adam 
ever  made  a decent  bit  of  road  before  steam  traction  was 
invented.  And  nothing  needs  to  be  more  fully  explained 
at  the  present  time,  to  raise  the  hopes  of  our  people,  than 
the  fact  that  with  dump  carts  running  on  broad  tires,  having 
ten  or  fifteen  hundred-weight  on  each  wheel,  the  stone  itself 
can  be  made  to  roll  its  own  road  solid  without  any 
additional  expense  whatever.  Wheelmen  should  see  to  it 
that  factories  for  broad  cart  wheels  are  established  in  every 
State  right  away,  or  arrangements  made  for  importing  them 
free  of  duty. 

The  pamphlet  circular  of  the  Aveling  & Porter  steam 
roller,  in  its  certificate  of  award  from  the  international  jury 
of  our  Centennial  Exhibition,  endorses  the  sterling  princi- 
ples of  the  broad-tired  cart  wheel  in  these  terms  : — 

“The  principle  of  dividing  the  rolling  surfaces  as  much  as  pos- 
sible is  of  GREAT  IMPORTANCE  IN  ROAD  MAKING,  since  the  Weight 
thus  distributed  penetrates,  so  to  speak,  beneath  the  surface,  finds 
out  the  weak  spots,  and  causes  an  even,  uniform  condition  under- 
neath, while  the  inequalities  of  the  surface  can  be  overcome  by 
the  addition  of  metals  in  the  holes.” 

It  is  a pleasure  to  recognize  this  brilliant  common  sense 
among  the  higher  engineering  circles  of  Japan,  Spain,  Great 
Britain,  the  Argentine  Republic  and  the  United  States,  rep- 
resented on  the  international  jury. 

In  an  immense  country  like  ours,  where  millions  of  miles 
of  quagmire  roads  and  streets  shine  with  thick  and  slab  mud 
in  the  sun  of  every  open  winter ; where  our  skeleton  of  a 
population  is  scattered  over  vast  surfaces  by  railway,  it 
makes  the  owner  of  valuable  stone-crusher  patents  (capable 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


235 


of  digesting  a ton  and  a half  of  rocks  per  minute)  feel  rich, 
considering  the  enormous  road  fields  requiring  his  kind  of 
top-dressing.  But  he  ought  to  be  very  careful  about  the  pic- 
tures he  circulates  to  illustrate  his  business.  No  people  can 
make  woful  blunders  and  continue  to  pay.  A narrow-tired 
prairie  wagon  backed  up  to  his  broken-stone  elevator,  with 
the  screened  coarse  material  dropping  inside  the  schooner- 
body,  to  go  loose  and  wandering  in  the  mud,  — in  lack  of 
the  finer  rock-filling  spilling  outside  of  load, — is  fully  a 
hundred  years  behind  the  principles  of  M’Adam,  and  thou- 
sands of  years  behind  the  ancient  lessons  of  the  best  gravel 
knoll  described  on  the  first  page  of  this  essay.  If  we  allow 
these  blind  road  machinists  to  lead  us,  we  shall  be  as  well 
off  in  the  ditch  as  in  the  middle  of  the  road. 

A word  to  the  wise  is  sufficient,  but  something  more  is 
needed  for  the  foolish.  Let  us  bear  in  mind  our  grand  dis- 
tances of  wealthy  farming  country,  whose  only  real  protec- 
tion is  the  impassable  nature  of  its  highways ; where  the 
traveller  for  long  mud-stretches  has  to  work  his  passage  by 
frequently  alighting  from  the  vehicle  ; where  it  is  a constant 
chore  to  disentangle  his  wheels  from  the  tenacious  clay  that 
has  filled  his  spokes  as  solid  as  the  paddles  of  a churn  just 
before  the  butter  comes  ; where  masses  of  the  chafing  material 
either  lock  his  wheels  or  threaten  to  swamp  his  wagon-bed. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  is  proper  to  make  the  sign  of 
caution  to  those  who  so  urge  the  claims  of  road  machinery,  as 
to  aggravate  the  sticky  situation,  east  and  west,  north  and 
south,  by  filling  the  clay  with  loose,  sharp  rocks,  even  more 
treacherous  in  waylaying  the  traveller  than  the  quaking  mire 
alone.  It  is  time  to  call  a halt  in  highway  talk  for  the  best 
repute  of  road  machinery. 

There  are  thousands  and  thousands  of  places,  where 
narrow  ribbands  of  unequally  broken  stone,  laid  really 
solid,  and  well  supported  according  to  the  strict  principles 
of  M’Adam,  with  such  local  modifications  as  that 
naturalistic  road  maker  would  be  certain  to  justify  if  he 
stood  upon  the  spot,  that  would  be  perfect  godsends  for 
millions  of  people,  indestructible  and  millennial  thorough- 
fares, practically  everlasting,  better  than  perishable  iron 
roads  on  wooden  foundations,  social  bonds,  liberal  edu- 


236 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


cations  for  the  peoples  constructing  them ; but  there  is  only 
one  way  to  do  the  work.  There  must  be  teams  of  broad- 
tired  carts  driving  over  every  inch  of  the  self-filling 
material,  compacting  it  as  fast  as  it  is  dumped  and  nicely 
spread  on  the  highway.  This  is  the  doctrine  for  country 
road  making.  Every  good  citizen  may  see,  if  he  chooses, 
that  the  broad-tired  cart  for  city  use  is  the  natural  fore- 
runner of  the  narrow-tread  steam  roller  and  the  traction 
engine.  We  must  creep  before  we  can  run. 

We  hear  of  much  being  done  with  thin  coats  of  small 
stone,  rolled  into  sandy  or  gravelly  streets,  where  the 
drainage  is  naturally  very  good.  This  “ gospel  of  thinness  ” 
is  a pretty  doctrine ; it  gives  us  something  to  travel  on, 
with  the  same  cost  for  grading  and  finishing  as  if  we  had  a 
road  with  a good  deal  more  substance  in  it.  The  bottom  of 
our  four-inch  work  is  in  the  dirt,  and  the  top  will  soon  be 
growing  nasty  with  surface  accumulations.  It  begins  to 
appear,  within  a year  or  two,  that  there  are  exudations  of 
mud  from  the  subsoil  we  thought  was  sandy  enough.  At 
last  the  most  sanguine  friend  of  the  experiment  sees  that  it 
was  a mistake,  and  that  resurfacing  is  necessary ; but  by 
that  time  every  particle  of  the  four-inch  glaze  is  saturated 
and  slippery  with  manufactured  clay.  Too  late  we  recall 
that  M’Adam  recommended  ten  inches  of  solid  stone  for  the 
climate  of  England,  where  frost  is  scarcely  so  severe  as  in 
Virginia.  Good  country  roads,  to  cost  little  and  wear  well, 
must  be  narrow. 

In  resurfacing  with  another  thin  coat  upon  the  muddy  first 
strata,  we  are  liable  to  lose  in  two  or  three  ways,  besides 
the  loss  and  disgrace  of  doing  our  work  over  again.  If  we 
do  it  in  a wet  time,  we  shall  certainly  crush  our  clean  stone 
into  the  mud.  If  we  do  it  in  a dry  time,  we  are  liable  to  turn 
a heavy  steam  roller  into  a regular  rock-crusher,  grinding 
much  small  metal  to  powder  between  our  upper  and  nether 
mill-stones.  In  either  case  we  have  incorporated  a layer 
of  filth  in  the  heart  of  our  road.  Had  we  applied  eight 
inches  of  solid  stone  with  broad-tired  carts  in  the  first  place, 
we  should  feel  at  least  four  times  as  secure  from  internal 
friction,  with  every  particle  of  material  slipping  and  sliding 
upon  every  other  one,  and  grinding  to  destruction  under 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


237 


moderate  city  traffic.  The  sooner  our  steam  roller  and 
rock  crusher  brethren  discover  that  the  gentle  pursua- 
sion  of  the  broad  cart  wheel,  delivering  metal  filled  with  its 
own  hard  binding,  will  enable  us  to  lay  down  solid  rock- 
road  at  one  operation,  complete  for  a life-time,  the  better  it 
will  be  for  all  of  us. 

The  good  stone  man  of  this  stone  age  will  most  intelli- 
gently consider  the  pockets  of  his  masters  when  he  minds 
least  what  they  ignorantly  say,  and  is  most  delicately  sensi- 
tive to  the  durability  of  the  metal  he  employs  fn  road 
making.  He  should  never  be  satisfied  with  a road  that 
changes  at  all  except  by  surface  friction,  and  the  matter 
loosened  by  that  should  be  washed  away  by  every  rattling 
shower.  One  of  Telford’s  few  remarks  was,  that  “ a good 
road  will  be  so  shaped  as  to  clean  itself.”  To  do  this  long 
in  the  busy  main  street  of  a city  or  village,  everybody  must 
say  the  new  work  is  “too  high,”  at  first;  but  they  will 
presently  get  used  to  that,  as  they  do  to  any  new  fashion, 
and  employ  themselves  with  some  other  nine-days’  wonder. 
The  best  road  maker  will  feel,  however,  that  he  is  but  a 
necessary  evil,  and  that  the  streets  are  not  kept  solely  for 
his  exploits  and  perambulations. 

Now,  we  hear  much  said,  by  those  who  have  been  abroad, 
of  the  fine  roads  that  are  seen  there ; and  we  are  invited  to 
consider  the  European  plan  of  keeping  our  roads  up.*  It 
seems  to  make  no  difference  in  Europe  how  the  roads  are 
constructed  in  the  first  place,  because  the  “ maintenance  ” is 
so  thorough,  being  sustained  to  a considerable  extent  by 
American  travel  and  cheap  bread.  Great  gangs  of  men, 
with  gypsy- wagons  to  live  in,  are  continually  moving 
about  the  country,  doing  something  to  the  roads ; but 
the  finest  thing  about  the  “system”  is,  that  men  are 
stationed  at  short  intervals,  to  do  whatever  the  great 
gangs  forget  or  neglect.  By  the  accounts  we  get,  the  roads  in v 
some  parts  of  Europe  are  lined  with  make-believe  menders. 
If  armies  were  being  disbanded  to  starve,  there  might  be 

* W.  C.  Oastler,  C.E.,  New  York,  says:  “In  London,  where  there  are  1,800  miles 
of  broken-stone  roads,  and  more  than  fifty  steam  rollers,  the  stone  is  brought  150 
miles,  and  when  it  is  delivered  ready  for  use  it  costs  $4.25  (17s.  9d.)  per  cubic  yard.” 
If  the  measure  is  not  quite  half  air,  we  can  see  that  a road-stone  quarry  is  better  than 
a gold  mine. 


238 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


some  sense  in  giving  old  heroes  a chance  to  glean  a living 
on  the  highway,  and  road  superintendents  would  be 
excusable,  in  a charitable  point  of  view,  for  leaving  small 
jobs  of  work  for  industrious  old  gleaners  to  pick  up.  But 
how  about  road  making  as  a business,  where  the  porous 
work  shows  most  contrivance  to  make  work?  According 
to  this  European  plan,  American  roads  have  places  at  the 
present  time  for  several  millions  of  government  employees,  — 
or  will , when  they  are  thoroughly  organized  on  the  Euro- 
pean plan.  It  may  be  observed  in  passing  that  a great 
many  people  are  running  away  from  that  European  system. 
Resident  land-owners  taking  pride  in  their  own  roads  might 
do  the  work  much  better  and  cheaper. 

Looking  charitably  at  our  Eastern  cities,  it  would  seem 
as  if  the  gleaning  plan  was  in  full  operation.  Streets 
are  opened  and  treated,  not  with  a strong  desire  to  show  the 
best  possible  road  making,  of  stone  or  anything  else,  but 
apparently,  by  constant  changes  of  mismanagement,  to  leave 
as  much  as  possible  of  the  people’s  substance  to  be  gleaned 
under  the  head  of  44  maintenance.” 

The  question  will  arise,  and  will  be  presented  sharply 
for  reply : Is  this  legitimate  business,  applicable  to  the 
whole  country,  or  are  we  spending  our  children’s  patri- 
mony of  good-will  and  the  fruits  of  the  earth  for  perishable 
extravagances  in  road  making?  Can  the  two  Dakotas 
make  a profit  on  44  eighty-five-cent  wheat  at  Atlantic  ports,” 
that  will  enable  them  to  lay  down  long  lines  of  “Telford- 
Macadam,”  with  picturesque  vistas  of  road-mending  stations 
for  maintenance  ? Can  we  afford  to  make  mistakes  in  letting 
precious  road-stone  go  wandering  through  the  mud  of  any 
part  of  our  great  mid-country  ? What  is  good  for  Dakota  is 
good  for  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut  in  this  railway  age. 

These  questions  answer  themselves  plainly  enough  in  our 
own  minds.  Thoughtful  Americans  will  perceive  that,  if 
we  desire  better  roads  anywhere, — as  who  does  not?  — it 
is  our  first  duty  to  learn  our  road-making  trades.  Let  us 
have  State  surveys  and  topographic  maps  in  every  house- 
hold, so  that  we  can  all  see  which  way  our  roads  should  run ; 
and,  while  these  surveys  are  being  made  and  new  model  hand- 
tools,  vehicles  and  machinery  put  in  a state  of  forwardness, 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


239 


let  every  town,  county  and  State  try  to  conceive  and  bring 
forth  a quarter  of  a mile  of  road  that  will  not  require  a 
standing  army  of  road  menders  for  its  maintenance.  Moun- 
tains of  rocks  are  waiting  to  be  fabricated  into  paths  of 
peace  and  pleasantness.  Let  us  begin  with  samples  of  road 
wherever  fit  workmen  and  material  can  be  got  together, 
with  their  keeping  up,  wrought  into  their  solid  foundations  ; 
and  let  us  have  men  engaged  in  the  construction  of  roads 
who  are  not  gainers  by  their  early  destruction.  The  field 
is  large  enough  for  all  the  world  to  work  in. 

The  American  mind  runs  to  monopoly  as  naturally  as 
water  runs  down  hill.  Nature  herself  keeps  road-stone 
where  it  is  hard  to  get.  But  a State  government  that  is 
good  for  anything  ought  to  be  good  for  opening  and  test- 
ing stone-road  quarries.  State  chemists  should  have  been 
ready,  long  ago,  with  the  composition  of  the  best  country 
roads.  Limestone  quarries  yawn  with  the  tedium  of  wait- 
ing to  be  tested  more  intelligently  than  they  have  ever  been. 
Who  knows  what  a little  dust  of  iron  will  do  in  a broken 
limestone  road? 

In  sight  of  an  ignorant  and  heedless  public,  good  quarries 
may  be  be  beaten  out  of  use  by  conniving  officials,  and 
replaced  by  inferior  metal.  A first-rate  roadstone  can 
better  afford  to  give  itself  to  be  rightly  used  than  to  sell  at 
any  price  for  a blundering  street. 

Last  March,  in  Salisbury,  England,  where  flints  are 
plenty,  I found  a short,  red-faced  official,  watching,  with  a 
steam  roller,  the  crushing  of  limestone  into  the  mud  of  a 
narrow  thoroughfare. 

“ Better  ’n  flints?”  I asked  at  his  elbow. 

“We  are  trying  an  experiment.  The  limestone  quarry 
people  have  influence  with  the  Board.” 

4 4 P’raps  the  flints  have  been  mismanaged  ? ” 

“Well,” — with  a wink,  — 4 4 there  may  have  been  some 
o’  that ! ” 

4 4 But  do  you  think  the  limestone  a better  metal  ? ” 

“No,— I don't” 

That  was  good  English  for  me.  The  ignorant  taxpayers 
on  that  street  were  being  worked  for  all  they  were  worth,  — 
whether  with  limestone  or  flints.  The  delicious  harmonies 


240 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


I had  just  before  heard  floating  among  the  arches  of  the 
grand  old  cathedral  had  to  be  averaged  with  these  street- 
discords  in  my  Yankee  mind.  “Make  ye  your  paths 
straight”  is  a good  word  for  modern  roads. 

Road  making  could  be  taught  and  learned  much  more 
effectively,  were  the  real  materials  here  present  in  the  hands 
of  experts.  If  a few  barrels  of  fit  earths,  gravels  and  broken 
rocks  were  at  hand,  with  water  for  tempering  and  means  for 
manipulating  them  in  trough-like  road-bottoms  in  miniature, 
it  would  not  be  in  the  least  difficult  to  make  public  exhibi- 
tions, over  and  over  again,  of  every  needful  point  in  the 
business,  so  a child  need  not  err  therein.  Every  fair-ground 
should  be  utilized  for  that  purpose,  on  larger  scales  than 
would  be  as  easy  under  cover.  We  are  being  regularly 
educated  now  to  let  road  mending  be  a lucrative  business 
for  others  than  ourselves.  Available  sources  of  this  or  that 
substance  are  owned  by  parties  who  can  well  afford  to  teach 
us  to  forget  and  forego  the  right  use  of  our  own  materials, 
and  give  them  a perpetual  income.  It  is  a wonder  we  are 
not  importing  material  for  country  roads,  as  we  do  peat- 
bedding for  horses. 

A grand  object  lesson  for  a sleepy  farmers’  meeting,  during 
the  present  phases  of  indoor  road  study,  would  be  to  have 
not  a ray  of  light  in  the  room  for  a moment,  except  what 
shone  from  an  inch  of  tallow-dip,  lighted  on  the  speaker’s 
desk,  with  about  a peck  of  “ even-sized”  broken  stone  piled 
up  around  it.  That  would  exceed  any  electric  light,  yet,  in 
our  business ! 

Every  local  road-job  has  its  own  laws  and  conditions  to 
be  studied,  perhaps  to  break  them.  These  are  too  many  for 
this  place.  Often  the  wilfulness  of  some  private  individual 
is  a snag  to  be  avoided  if  possible.  Once  I found  five 
hundred  loads  of  village  rubbish  lying  on  top  of  the  gravel 
I wanted.  In  that  case  after  needful  diplomacy,  I made  a 
special  stretch  of  public  road,  where  a till  was  advisable,  to 
hold  that  rubbish.  Forty  big  loads  of  old  spring-beds, 
kitchen  boilers,  stove-pipe,  iron-hoops,  tin  cans,  umbrellas, 
etc.,  went  into  the  bottom  of  a very  good  bit  of  wheeling, 
where  it  was  miry  before, — to  the  great  astonishment  of 
by-standers.  The  party  of  action  requires  some  nerve  in 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


241 


such  cases ; but  all  is  well  that  ends  well.  The  good 
road-mender  must  have  a place  for  and  be  ready  for  any- 
thing. He  is  liable  to  be  called  to  bury  dead  horses  and 
receive  a delegation  of  village  women  at  the  same  moment, 
when  highway,  street  and  side-walk  concerns  become  lively. 

We  have  run  through  the  whole  list  of  road-stuff,  from 
native  brush,  sands,  earths,  gravels,  wood  in  various  forms, 
cobble  stones  and  broken  rock,  furnace-slag,  clinkers,  and 
a great  variety  of  pavements  to  railway  iron  and  steel,  — all 
good  in  their  places, — yet  never,  as  a whole  people,  thor- 
oughly understanding  any  of  them.  We  allow  ourselves  to 
be  rushed  from  one  expense  to  another,  as  if  road  material 
was  a matter  of  fashion,  like  the  shape  of  a hat  or  coat. 

The  city  engineering  plan  of  piling  each  size  of  stone  in 
separate  layers,  is  nothing  but  the  old  wood-chopper’s  trick 
for  making  their  cords  bulky,  and  measure  more  by  the  air- 
spaces in  them.  Stone  crushers  by  the  yard  gain  by  measur- 
ing their  sizes  separately.  Laborers  understand  the  trick. 
If  they  wink  at  our  cheating,  we  must  wink  at  theirs. 
When  any  engineer  tells  of  these  things,  the  rings  maul  him 
to  death,  and  nobody  minds.  Road-stone  should  be  sold  by 
weight,  or  cubic  measure,  after  it  is  well  built,  like  brick  or 
stone  wall. 

We  can  show  visiting  strangers  some  fine  streets,  while 
they  are  new  and  fresh  from  the  mud-starch  and  ironing  of 
the  steam  roller.  But  why  don’t  they  wear  longer  ? What 
makes  these  depressions  after  a few  months  or  years  ? 
Why  do  they  shake  us  so? 

The  trouble  comes  from  “porous”  road  making.  Our 
honeycomb  arrangement  of  stone  and  air  has  caved  in.  Our 
road-cake  has  “ fallen  from  the  crust.”  Clay  or  street  filth 
has  pushed  in  among  the  rounded  stone.  The  skim-coat 
of  screenings  has  blown  into  people’s  houses,  or  worked,  as 
greasy  mud,  into  the  leaching  foundation.  Rains,  freezing 
and  thawing,  the  wringing  pressure  of  wheels  trembling 
under  heavy  traffic,  have  destroyed  the  admired  steam-roller 
polish.  Let  us  drive  on  some  new  street.  Soon  there  will 
be  a call  for  “ resurfacing,”  and  so  the  bad  work  goes  on. 

The  evil  of  dust,  with  its  discomfort,  dirt,  and  possible 
dissemination  of  diseases  from  streets,  is  greatly  aggravated 


242 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


during  drouths  by  the  4 4 porous  ” arrangement  of  stone  in 
so-called  “macadam”  roads.  Artificial  waterings  and  the 
water  of  rains  are  wasted  in  the  loose  material  that  is  never 
dampened  by  capillary  moisture  so  as  to  hold  its  own  dust 
from  blowing.  Dry  stone  is  softer,  crushes  easier  and 
more  thoroughly  under  the  wheels  of  travel ; while  solid 
broken  stone,  firmly  seated  upon  the  cool  moisture  of  the 
earth,  would  be  liable  to  none  of  the  mischances  we  are 
mentioning.  Such  broad  4 4 macadam  ” streets  as  we  some- 
times manufacture  are  but  narrow  Saharas,  liable  to  fierce 
dust  storms.  It  would  be  better  to  break  the  centres  of 
some  of  them  with  lines  of  shade  trees,  shrubbery,  flowers 
and  grass. 

Old  stone  roads  mismanaged  in  making  are  not  even  good 
foundations  for  new  ones,  albeit  M’Adam  had  to  use  them. 
They  are  worth  no  more  than  dirty  rock,  free  of  cartage,  and 
might  well  be  lifted,  rain-washed,  broken  over  again,  and 
relaid  as  M’Adam  did  in  similar  cases,  with  betterments  as 
aforesaid,  that  he  would  approve  to-day. 

When  we  have  learned  to  build  solid  and  smooth  stone 
roads,  wearing  only  from  surface  friction,  fewer  horse  or 
other  railways  will  be  in  demand.  These  live  by  popular 
ignorance  of  stone  and  gravel  road  making.  We  can  see, 
better  than  we  can  describe,  how  a succession  of  stupid  road- 
menders  furnish  tramways  their  opportunity.  They  and 
their  gangs  like  porous  stone-work  to  lay  their  frequent 
spruce  sleepers  in.  Porous  street  substances  furnish  easy 
and  continual  diggings.  The  rattle  and  roar  of  business  goes 
on,  and  the  people  pay  more  taxes  in  new  forms. 

Sweet,  springy  and  elastic  earthen  roads,  as  made  by  old- 
style  New  England  artists  and  farmers,  furnish  the  pleasant- 
est tracks  man  ever  drove  a horse  on.  Narrow,  rounding 
and  dry,  with  scarcely  perceptible  water-bars,  in  a delecta- 
ble hill  country,  the  roads  I have  in  mind  — not  too  much 
travelled  — are  delightful  to  walk  over,  alone  or  in  good 
company.  There  are  thousands  of  places  in  the  country, 
where,  after  constructing  the  best  possible  roads  of  gravel  or 
broken  stone,  it  might  be  well  to  dress  the  narrow  highway 
every  spring  with  plastic,  fibrous  loam,  just  for  the  use  of 
driving  on  it  in  summer  time.  It  is  political  economy, 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


243 


as  well  as  the  highest  art,  for  the  country  to  make  itself 
attractive  to  the  town,  in  all  gentle,  graceful  and  natural 
ways.  What  is  not  forest  should  be  garden  and  park.  Not 
a single  item  of  farm  thrift  hinders.  Trees,  shrubs  and 
vines  come  by  chance  along  many  country  roadsides,  which 
may  be  more  beautiful  than  anything  we  can  plant  there,  if 
we  clip  obvious  weeds,  and  show  nooks  and  bays  of  green- 
sward among  the  low  groups  and  towers  of  foliage. 

City  people  spend  millions,  yearly,  to  get  a rest  from  the 
din  of  their  own  devices.  Would  not  some  part  of  the 
labor  we  spend  in  glutting  far-away  city  markets  over  poor 
highways,  be  better  expended  in  making  rural  roads  and 
roadsides  so  lovely  as  to  bring  the  best  citizens  to  our 
doors?  It  may  be  a slow  but  it  will  be  a sure  speculation, 
if  we  go  the  right  way  to  work.  We  need  first  to  settle 
ourselves  comfortably.  Road  making  is  but  a subordinate 
branch  of  gardening,  and  we  may  make  gardens  of  our 
roadsides. 

The  Chairman.  Secretary  Sessions  has  a letter  which  he 
thinks  is  appropriate  at  this  time,  if  you  will  give  your 
attention. 

Tolland,  Mass.,  Dec.  1,  1891. 

To  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture. 

Gentlemen  : — I should  be  very  much  pleased  to  attend  your 
meetings  this  week  if  I could.  I feel  very  much  interested  in 
the  subject  of  country  roads.  We  are  eighteen  miles  from  rail- 
road, over  very  heavy  hills  and  mountains.  Our  roads  could  be 
very  much  improved  if  we  had  the  money  to  do  it.  We  are  thinly 
settled,  have  a large  piece  of  road  to  every  man,  to  be  kept  in  the 
best  repair  we  are  able.  We  can  barely  make  them  passable,  with- 
out making  any  improvements  on  them.  Our  hills  are  steep 
grade.  Many  of  them  need  the  location  changed,  others  can  be 
improved  by  grading.  One  particular  place  I will  name,  in  the 
town  of  Granville,  on  our  mail  route.  After  climbing  up  a 
hard  mountain,  over  one-half  mile,  we  then  have  to  rise  one  hun- 
dred feet  higher,  over  a very  heavy  grade  of  rocky,  ledgy  road,  to 
fall  down  another  steep  grade.  This  might  all  be  saved  by  a 
short  change  in  the  location,  and  one  hundred  feet  of  rise  and  fall. 
There  are  many  places  on  our  roads  similar  to  this  that  greatly 
need  work  done.  Our  mountain  towns  are  poor,  our  population 
decreasing,  and  our  taxes  are  two  mills  on  the  dollar.  We  are  not 


244 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


able  to  do  what  very  much  needs  to  be  done  to  our  roads.  Our 
roadways  are  so  rocky  that  we  cannot  work  road  machines  to 
much  advantage.  We  pay  our  taxes  to  the  State,  and  we  feel  that 
the  State  should  help  us  to  have  at  least  one  road  for  a mail  route 
that  is  better  than  we^  are  able  to  have  ourselves.  Our  roads  are 
now  travelled  mostly  where  they  were  located  when  the  country 
was  first  settled,  before  the  art  of  road  making  was  known. 

Hoping  that  your  meeting  may  lead  to  a betterment  of  our 
country  roads,  I remain  yours,  Fowler  T.  Moore, 

Road  Commissioner. 

The  Chairman . Gentlemen,  you  have  listened  to  a 
very  interesting  lecture  from  the  essayist  of  the  after- 
noon. The  Board  has  invited  every  road  surveyor  in 
every  city  and  town  in  this  Commonwealth  to  join  with  us 
this  afternoon  in  the  discussion  of  the  question.  It  has 
also  invited  gentlemen  connected  with  the  carriage  interest 
and  the  horse  interest  to  he  here  and  take  part  with  us.  I 
think  some  of  them  are  here.  The  essayist  has  referred  to 
the  roadsides  in  the  country.  That  is  a subject  which 
interests  every  community ; and  it  is  our  duty  to  consider 
the  State  as  a whole,  the  future  of  the  State  in  all  its 
departments,  the  care  of  it  not  only  for  the  present  gener- 
ation, hut  for  all  future  generations, — to  look  after  it, 
protect  it  and  promote  its  interests.  We  have  a gentleman 
here  to-day  who  is  extremely  interested  in  the  character  of 
the  roadsides  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  we  should  be  very 
glad  to  hear  from  him.  He  is  a gentleman  who  is  very  much 
interested  in  the  preservation  of  all  places  of  historical 
interest,  and  all  places  of  natural  beauty  and  attractiveness. 
We  should  he  very  glad  to  hear  from  Mr.  Charles  Elliot 
of  Boston. 

Mr.  Elliot.  I have  very  much  enjoyed  the  talk  which 
the  lecturer  has  given  us.  It  is  true  that  I feel  a very  deep 
interest  in  the  roads  and  roadsides  of  the  State.  I am 
familiar  with  many  townships  where  the  beauty  of  the 
roadsides  is  so  much  a source  of  attraction  that  one  might 
say  they  are  a part  of  the  financial  capital  of  the  town- 
ship, drawing  people  from  far  and  near  on  account  of  the 
beauty  of  the  scenery,  and  the  roadsides  are  part  of  the 
scenery. 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


245 


It  seems  to  me  that  a great  many  of  the  townships  in  this 
State  would  be  consulting  their  best  interests  if  they  would 
pay  much  more  attention  than  they  do  to  that  side  of  the 
subject.  Not  only  should  they  make  their  roadways  better, 
but  they  should  take  more  pains  with  the  roadsides.  The 
town  of  Brookline,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  richest  town 
in  the  State,  shows  something  of  what  might  be  done.  Those 
who  are  familiar  with  it  know  that  the  roadsides  are  in  most 
parts  of  the  town  very  charming,  and  those  who  are  still 
more  familiar  with  it  know  that  the  roadsides  are  cared  for 
by  special  committees,  who  are  empowered  to  plant  trees, 
to  cut  the  grass,  and  to  do  this,  that  and  the  other  thing,  as 
they  may  see  fit.  I only  mention  that  town  because  it  is  a 
very  conspicuous  example  of  what  our  roadsides  may  be. 
The  preservation  of  everything  that  is  beautiful  in  the 
natural  scenery  of  the  State  I believe  to  be  a very  important 
thing  for  this  Massachusetts  of  ours.  It  is  going  to  be,  in  a 
future  time,  if  we  are  careful  and  look  alive  in  these  matters, 
a place  of  great  resort  for  people  from  our  Western  country, 
— a country  with  by  no  means  as  much  natural  beauty  as 
this  of  ours  ; and  those  towns  which  look  sharpest  after  this 
matter  are  certain  to  be  the  towns  which  will  be  chosen  for 
the  happiness  and  enjoyment  of  the  people  who  come  here. 
The  people  here  present,  if  they  care  to  hear  something 
more  on  this  subject,  will  be  glad,  I know,  to  listen  to  a 
friend  of  mine  who  has  lately  been  making  a journey  through 
all  the  sea-coast  towns  of  the  State,  to  see  what  they  are 
doing  and  to  see  how  much  they  are  making  of  this  very 
thing,  — because  it  is  the  sea-coast  that  will  be  most  resorted 
to,  undoubtedly,  in  this  search  for  pleasant  summer  resorts. 
I hope,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  will  call  upon  Mr.  Harrison  of 
New  Hampshire,  who  happens  to  be  here  this  afternoon,  but 
has  to  go  away  shortly. 

The  Chairman.  I shall  take  pleasure  in  calling  upon  the 
gentleman,  but  before  introducing  him  let  me  call  the  atten- 
tion of  this  audience  to  the  fact,  which  I think  is  a very 
important  point,  that  many  of  those  shrubs  which  we  find 
upon  our  roadsides,  and  which  many  of  us  are  in  the  habit  of 
cutting  down,  are  to-day  exported  to  England  and  other 
countries,  where  they  are  grown  in  nurseries  as  prized 


246 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


things.  I take  pleasure  in  introducing  to  you  Mr.  Harrison. 
He  is  a gentleman  who  has  been  interested  in  the  preserva- 
tion and  protection  of  woodlands  and  forests  as  public  reser- 
vations for  the  good  of  the  people  of  New  England. 

Mr.  Harrison.  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen : 
A few  weeks  ago  I was  in  the  town  of  Manchester  and  over 
in  the  town  of  Essex,  and  I found  a feature  of  the  roads  of 
that  region  which  was  very  interesting  to  me.  An  arrange- 
ment was  made  some  years  ago  by  which  a plat  of  land  on 
each  side  of  the  road  from  Manchester  to  Essex  was  pur- 
chased, largely  by  the  efforts  of  some  public-spirited  women 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  the  deeds  of  the  land  deposited  in 
the  office  of  the  town  clerk.  The  title  is  in  the  town. 
These  ladies,  driving  frequently  along  the  road  between 
Manchester  and  Essex  some  years  ago,  found  that  much  of 
the  beauty  of  the  roadsides  was  in  danger  of  being  destroyed 
by  cutting  away  the  shrubs  and  bushes  on  each  side  of  the 
road.  They  thought  about  it  and  conferred  with  each  other 
until  it  seemed  to  them  a very  important  thing  for  the  sum- 
mer visitors  to  that  region,  and  for  the  young  people  who 
were  growing  up  in  that  neighborhood,  that  the  growth  of 
trees  and  shrubbery  at  the  sides  of  that  roadway  should  be 
preserved.  They  talked  about  it  and  thought  about  it  and 
wrote  about  it,  until  they  effected  an  arrangement  by  which 
the  necessary  funds  were  provided  and  this  strip  of  land  on 
each  side  of  that  highway  was  purchased ; and,  the  title 
being  in  the  town,  it  seems  a very  effectual  accomplishment 
in  that  direction.  Everything  indicates  that  the  scenery 
there  will  be  preserved  permanently,  and  that  that  road,  at 
least,  is  likely  to  be  fora  long  time,  or  for  all  time,  a beauti- 
ful place,  a drive  attractive  to  everybody  with  any  sense  "of 
natural  beauty ; and  I learned  that  so  great  is  the  interest  in 
and  satisfaction  with  the  road  that  it  is  exerting  a very  favor- 
able influence  upon  the  price  of  land  along  it,  and  the. general 
attractiveness  of  the  region  causes  the  land  to  be  more  and 
more  in  request. 

I do  not  know  that  that  example  can  be  very  generally 
or  widely  followed,  but  certainly  it  is  something  that 
deserves  an  intelligent  and  respectful  recognition  that  we 
have  here  such  an  example ; and  it  is  interesting  to  observe, 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


247 


as  I have  said,  that  it  comes  so  largely  from  the  thought- 
fulness of  some  of  the  intelligent  women  of  that  neighbor- 
hood. 

It  appears  to  me  that  the  need  in  this  direction  is  largely 
that  of  public  education  and  discussion,  and  that  hardly 
anything  adequate  at  all  can  be  done  in  this  State  unless  we 
begin  to  a very  great  extent  at  the  beginning  of  things,  as 
you  are  beginning  here  in  this  meeting  to  present  the  facts 
first  and  then  the  principles  which  obviously  relate  to  these 
facts,  so  that  we  can  have  a little  advance  in  civilization  in 
relation  to  these  subjects.  People  have  to  do  new  things, 
and  disuse  some  of  the  old  ways  of  doing  things.  There 
must  be  some  advance  in  popular  thought  and  in  popular 
intelligence,  perhaps,  before  anything  adequate  can  be 
accomplished. 

One  thing  presses  upon  me  when  I think  on  this  subject, 
and  that  is  the  curious  fact  of  so  great  a movement 
going  on  towards  the  shore  region  of  New  England, 
with,  at  the  same  time,  so  slight  recognition  of  such 
a movement  among  the  people.  A little  while  ago, 
as  my  friend  Mr.  Elliot-  remarked,  I was , through  the 
shore  towns  of  Massachusetts,  and  everywhere  I found 
indications  of  this  movement.  There  is  not  a shore 
town  in  the  State  to-day,  Mr-.  Chairman,  in  which  there  is 
not  going  on  a change  in  the  ownership  of  land ; and  yet 
very  few  people  in  the  towns  where  this  change  is  taking 
place  recognize  that  there  is  any  movement.  When  I 
visited  the  citizens  along  the  shore  and  the  town  officers  and 
the  leading  men,  and  asked  them  about  it,  very  commonly  the 
answer  would  be,  “No,  there  is  nothing  especial  going  on 
here  ; things  are  just  about  as  they  have  been  always.”  Of 
course  there  are  towns  in  whicn  this  is  not  the  case,  but  in 
many  towns  I was  told  : “No,  there  is  nothing  particular 
here.  Somebody  nas  bought  this  farm  down  here  and  a 
land  company  has  taken  up  something  of  an  area  over  on 
this  side,  and  we  have  heard  that  in  the  next  town  there 
have  been  several  places  bought  within  a year  or  two.” 
But  very  few  people  put  these  things  together,  and  many 
people  in  the  State  do  not  perceive  that  these  changes  in 
their  towns  indicate  any  general  movement  at  all.  They  do 


248 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


not  exercise  their  imagination  about  what  goes  on,  except 
in  their  own  town  or  perhaps  in  the  immediately  adjoining 
towns  which  they  have  heard  about. 

In  every  town  along  the  coast  of  the  State  there  has  been 
during  the  last  few  years  especially  an  incursion  of  people 
from  outside,  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  ownership  of 
land.  Some  of  the  citizens  tell  me  they  are  buying  for  men 
in  New  York,  for  men  in  Boston,  for  men  as  far  West  as  St. 
Louis  and  Minneapolis,  even ; that  they  have  been  employed 
by  a company  here  or  there  to  acquaint  them  with  any 
opportunities  for  the  quiet  acquisition  of  land.  Of  course 
these  purchasers  do  not  wish  to  come  into  competition  with 
themselves,  they  do  not  wish  to  have  it  known  that  they 
want  to  buy  eligible  places,  they  do  not  wish  to  have  prices 
advanced  upon  them ; but  in  all  the  shore  towns  of  the  State 
there  is  something  of  this  movement  going  forward,  — in 
some,  of  course,  much  more  than  in  others.  If  we  could  see 
all  the  people  as  far  West  as  the  western  side  of  the 
Mississippi  valley  who  are  setting  their  faces  towards  the 
shore  towns  of  New  England,  it  would  be  a charming  and 
impressive  spectacle  ; but  of  course  we  cannot  see  how  many 
they  are,  and  they  are  buying  our  land  away  from  us  almost 
without  our  knowing  it.  In  several  instances  which  came  to 
my  knowledge  the  old  holders  of  the  land  were  very  much 
astonished  that  anybody  should  want  their  land  at  all,  or 
offer  any  price  for  it.  They  found  it  very  difficult  to  realize 
that  it  was  worth  more  to  anybody  else  than  it  was  to  them, 
and  they  were  rather  surprised  that  anybody  should  think  of 
giving  the  sum  of  money  that  they  were  disposed  to  sell  for. 
Instances  like  this  exist  in  many  of  the  towns  of  Massa- 
chusetts. People  who  own  an  acre  or  two  on  the  shore  do 
not  think  much  of  their  ownership  ; but  when  men  come  to 
own  three  or  four  miles  of  shore  land  they  think  it  almost 
invaluable.  The  way  in  which  we  treat  our  roadsides  is 
going  to  have  much  to  do  with  this  movement.  If  we  can 
add  to  their  beauty,  we  shall  increase  the  attractions  which 
we  have  here  in  this  beautiful  State  of  Massachusetts. 

The  Chairman.  We  are  very  glad  to  hear  from  Mr.  Har- 
rison ; and,  if  there  is  any  other  gentleman  present  who  is 
inclined  to  speak  from  the  same  stand-point,  we  shall  be  very 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


249 


glad  to  hear  from  him.  A number  of  gentlemen  have  been 
invited  to  come  here,  and,  if  any  of  them  are  present,  we 
shall  be  very  glad  to  hear  from  them  before  I call  upon  any- 
body to  speak. 

F.  W.  Sargent  (of  Amesbury).  We  have  present  with 
us  Mr.  Mann  of  Methuen,  who  I understand  has  just  com- 
pleted a large  contract  for  road  making. 

Charles  W.  Mann  (of  Methuen).  I will  not  speak 
about  the  work  I have  done ; perhaps  it  will  show  for  itself. 
It  is  only  a small  job.  In  our  town  of  Methuen  we  are 
becoming  greatly  interested  in  good  roads.  The  beginning 
of  that  interest  was  perhaps  two  years  ago,  when  our  town 
warrant  had  an  article  in  it  calling  for  an  appropriation  of 
ten  thousand  dollars  for  pavement.  That  is  likely  to  inter- 
est any  small  town.  But  there  were  some  other  articles, 
and  they  were  referred  to  a committee  of  three,  of  which  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  being  one.  After  the  committee  was 
appointed  we  went  down  to  Bridgeport,  and,  through  the 
information  obtained  from  Mr.  B.  D.  Pierce,  the  street 
commissioner  of  Bridgeport,  we  have  got  started  in  a way 
of  building  streets  at  a very  low  cost.  On  our  visit  there  he 
took  us  over  some  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  of  streets  which 
were  in  better  condition  than  we  had  ever  seen  in  any  city  of 
its  size.  His  method  of  building  is  first  to  have  a well-drained 
road-bed ; it  seems  to  make  very  little  difference  to  him 
what  the  material  is.  He  will  take  any  old  road,  and  work 
it  so  that  it  will  show  a crown  of  from  twelve  to  eighteen 
inches,  which  makes  a perfect  water-shed.  Then  he  rolls  it 
thoroughly  with  a steam  roller,  which  gives  a very  solid, 
hard  bed.  Then  one  coating  of  two-inch  crushed  stone  is 
applied,  just  so  they  will  cover  the  ground,  making  a coat- 
ing two  inches  thick.  That  is  screened  stone  of  even  size. 
Then  upon  that,  when  thoroughly  rolled,  is  placed  a layer 
of  smaller  stone,  perhaps  crushed  to  the  size  of  an  inch. 
Then  the  last  coat  is  applied  of  screened  stone,  such  as  are 
used  in  this  city  for  private  walks  and  sidewalks.  That 
coating  is  applied  and  thoroughly  watered  and  rolled  until 
the  water  will  flush  in  front  of  the  roller.  If  you  can  find 
sixty  miles  of  driveway  built  for  the  sum  which  he  told  me 
those  roads  cost,  which  I think  was  less  than  two  hundred 


250  BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 

thousand  dollars,  I would  go  a great  many  miles  to  see 
them. 

The  Telford-Macadam  road  which  has  been  described  here 
is  built  from  two  to  three  feet  deep,  at  an  expense  of  per- 
haps six  times  as  much  as  the  roads  to  which  I have  referred 
cost.  Mr.  Pierce  showed  me  places  where  a Telford  road 
which  had  been  made  several  years  had  to  be  dressed  up 
every  year  to  keep  it  reasonably  smooth,  while  for  five  years 
a four-inch  road  by  the  side  of  it  was  as  smooth  as  need  be . 
The  repairing  of  these  roads  is  a very  easy  matter.  In  five 
or  ten  years,  if  the  top  coating  wears  off,  it  is  a very  simple 
matter  to  break  it  up  and  then  put  on  another  coating  of 
small  stone  and  thoroughly  roll  it,  when  the  road  will  be  as 
good  as  new,  and  at  very  little  expense. 

The  result  of  our  work  in  Methuen  is,  that  in  two  years 
we  have  built  half  a mile  of  street  about  forty-four  feet  in 
width,  macadamizing  it  in  that  way,  and  making  a very  fine 
avenue  of  it,  at  an  expense  of  five  thousand  dollars.  We 
think  that  to  have  paved  that  same  amount  would  have  cost 
over  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  this  street  is  very  much 
preferable  to  drive  over.  The  expense  of  keeping  it  in 
repair  perhaps  will  be  a little  more ; but  the  interest  on  the 
money  that  would  have  been  spent  for  paving  will  be  more 
than  sufficient  to  meet  the  extra  cost  of  repairs.  This  method 
perhaps  would  not  be  so  well  adapted  to  our  country  roads ; 
but  take  our  common  country  roads,  where  they  are  only 
from  twelve  to  twenty  feet  wide,  round  them  up,  roll  them 
thoroughly,  and  then  put  on  six  inches  or  even  eight  or  ten 
inches  of  stone,  and  roll  it  down  well,  and  I believe  it  would 
give  you  a permanent  road  at  very  small  cost ; for  in  many 
places  there  are  almost  stone  enough  going  to  waste  by  the 
roadside  which  can  be  very  easily  and  cheaply  worked  into 
good  material  for  a road-bed.  I believe  that  the  system  of 
road-building  and  the  character  of  the  roads  in  our  country 
towns  are  almost  altogether  wrong.  It  seems  that  the  man 
who  can  get  the  most  votes,  whatever  his  knowledge  or  lack 
of  knowledge  is,  takes  the  charge  of  the  roads  in  our  country 
towns ; and  I know  that  in  places  very  near  Methuen  there 
are  two  sets  of  men  running  from  one  end  of  the  town  to  the 
other  for  three  weeks  before  town-meeting  day  to  get  votes 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


251 


for  this  man  and  the  other  for  road  commissioner,  and 
oftentimes  they  peddle  a good  deal  of  hard  cider  to  get  them. 
I believe  the  man  who  is  to  have  charge  of  the  roads  should 
be  educated  for  his  work  as  well  as  a high-school  teacher 
should  know  his  work.  I think  it  would  be  a long  time 
before  we  would  elect  a high-school  teacher  by  popular 
election.  There  may  be  between  two  cities  or  towns  a poor 
town,  too  poor  to  build  and  maintain  proper  roads ; and  in 
such  cases  I believe  it  would  be  better  for  both  of  those 
cities  or  towns  and  for  the  intervening  territory  if  the  roads 
could  be  put  under  the  charge  of  the  county.  We  could 
then  have  good  roads,  such  as  the  poor  towns  between  cannot 
afford  to  build.  Perhaps  the  time  has  not  come  for  that 
yet ; but,  if  it  has  not  come,  I believe  it  is  on  the  way  or 
will  shortly  be  on  the  way. 

Question.  How  long  do  you  think  Mr.  Pierce’s  road 
would  stand  the  traffic  between  Quincy  and  Boston  ? 

Mr.  Mann.  I do  not  know  just  what  the  travel  is  in 
Bridgeport,  but  I know  that  there  are  three  hundred  tons  of 
freight  carried  over  the  streets  every  day. 

Question.  In  what  kind  of  teams  is  it  carried  ? 

Mr.  Mann.  It  is  carried  in  heavy  carts  with  narrow 
wheels,  probably,  as  every  man  does  and  should  not  do. 

Question.  Will  they  weigh  six  tons? 

Mr.  Mann.  I could  not  say  as  to  that ; but  Mr.  Pierce 
told  me  that  Barnum  moved  some  of  his  ^paraphernalia  that 
weighed  something  like  twenty  tons  over  one  of  those  four- 
inch  roads,  and  it  stood  up. 

Mr. . I have  heard  a good  deal  about  Mr.  Pierce’s 

four-inch  macadam  road,  and  I would  like  to  get  some  facts 
about  it.  I do  not  believe  such  a road  would  be  adapted  to 
the  requirements  of  a road  between  Quincy  and  Boston,  for 
instance,  where  the  loads  will  vary  from  ten  to  forty  tons. 

Mr.  Mann.  There  may  be  some  places  where  the  loads 
are  so  heavy  that  nothing  will  stand  them  but  granite  pave- 
ment. 

Mr.  . This  Telford  road  does  stand  it. 

Mr.  Mann.  It  did  not  stand  it  in  Bridgeport. 

Mr. . I can  assure  you  that  there  is  a Telford  road 

in  Quincy  that  was  built  four  years  ago,  and  it  stands. 


252 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


The  Chairman.  The  great  question  seems  to  be  how  to 
secure  good  country  roads.  The  cost  of  such  roads  bears 
heavily  upon  the  country  towns,  not  so  heavily  upon  a 
city.  How  shall  it  be  equalized  ? How  can  we  have  good 
country  roads  throughout  the  State,  and  how  shall  we 
assess  the  expense  of  doing  it?  That  question  is  before  us, 
and  we  hope  to  hear  from  other  gentlemen  who  are 
interested  in  it. 

Mr.  Thurston  (of  Swanzey).  There  is  no  question 
but  what  we  all  agree  to  the  necessity  of  having  better 
country  roads.  The  town  of  Swanzey  the  past  year 
made  a trial  with  one  surveyor ; a year  ago  they  had  three  ; 
before  that  they  had  ten.  We  have  now  got  down  to 
one,  and  we  think  that  we  are  progressing  in  the  right 
direction,  and  hope  to  get  roads,  if  we  can  get  the 
right  kind  of  help,  that  will  be  satisfactory.  We  have  the 
city  of  Fall  River  four  miles  from  us  on  one  side  and  the 
city  of  Providence  fifteen  miles  from  us  on  the  other  side, 
one  having  a population  of  eighty  thousand  and  the  other 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand.  We  have  a bridge 
and  eight  miles  of  street  in  our  town,  over  which  the 
traffic  from  those  two  cities  passes ; and  the  question  has 
been,  how  we  can  take  care  of  that  eight  miles  of  road, 
and  at  the  same  time  take  care  of  the  forty-four  miles 
of  other  roads  belonging  to  our  town  that  are  feeders  to 
this  main  road.  The  people  in  the  town  of  Swanzey  want 
to  have  good  roads.  One-third  of  all  the  money,  ten 
thousand  dollars,  that  we  raise  on  a valuation  of  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  is  spent  on  our  high- 
ways, one-third  is  spent  for  our  schools,  and  the  balance 
for  our  State,  county  and  town  expenses  outside  of  our 
highways ; and  yet  our  roads  are  in  poor  condition,  and 
they  never  can  be  any  better,  I fear,  unless  somebody 
comes  to  our  help.  I think  that  is  the  condition  of  a 
great  many  towns  in  this  Commonwealth.  I have  travelled 
over  many  roads  in  the  neighborhood  of  Worcester,  and 
from  there  to  Boston.  I understand  the  question  before  us 
this  afternoon  is  “How  can  the  country  roads  be  improved?” 
We  have  been  told  it  can  be  done  through  educational 
means.  I think  the  State  should  come  to  the  rescue  of 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


253 


those  towns,  as  it  has  come  to  their  rescue  on  the  subject 
of  education.  Most  of  you  know  the  laws  that  have  been 
passed  within  two  or  three  years  to  help  the  smaller  towns 
in  the  matter  of  education,  and  a noble  work  is  being  done 
through  them.  I believe  that  if  the  State  will  come  in  some 
way, — I do  not  know  how,  but  by  a proper  investigation 
the  way  will  be  found,  — if  the  State  will  come  to  the 
assistance  of  the  towns,  and  help  them  in  maintaining 
those  through  roads,  then  in  all  probability  the  towns  will 
take  care  of  the  local  roads.  I have  a resolution  which  I 
would  like  to  olfer,  if  I may. 

The  Chairman.  Any  resolution  expressing  the  opinion 
of  those  who  are  here  present  is  perfectly  in  order.  I see 
no  objection  to  it.  Of  course  it  is  not  in  order,  if  intended 
as  an  expression  of  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 

Mr.  Thurston  submitted  the  following  resolutions  : — 

Resolved , That  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture,  at  its  public 
meeting,  held  Dec.  1,  2 and  3,  1891,  recommends  such  legislation 
as  shall  induce  the  towns  of  the  Commonwealth  to  increase  their 
appropriations  for  highway  purposes. 

Resolved , .That  it  is  expedient,  and  will  conduce  to  the  safety 
and  better  condition  of  the  highways  and  bridges  in  this  Common- 
wealth, that  a State  highway  engineer  and  superintendent  of 
bridges  should  be  appointed. 

Mr.  Thurston,  continuing  his  remarks,  said : I think 
these  are  two  questions  which  have  been  before  the  Legisla- 
ture and  have  been  investigated  by  legislative  committees, 
who,  however,  have  failed  to  make  any  recommendation  on 
the  subject.  It  seems  to  me  that  we  need  the  last  as  much 
as  we  need  the  first. 

Secretary  Sessions.  I think  it  should  be  understood  that 
the  passage  of  the  resolutions  does  not  bind  the  State  Board 
of  Agriculture,  because  this  is  not  a meeting  of  that  Board. 

Mr.  Bowker.  I believe  that  Mr.  Thurston  is  in  earnest, 
and  honestly  endeavoring  to  have  this  Board  accomplish 
something.  I will  move  that  the  resolutions  be  referred  to 
the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  at  its  annual  meeting. 

Secretary  Sessions.  If  it  is  desired  to  get  an  expression 
of  the  opinion  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  upon  this  matter, 


254 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


that  is  the  only  way  in  which  a legal  expression  can  be  got. 
This  is  not  a legally  warned  meeting  of  the  Board ; and, 
as  you  all  understand,  at  this  late  hour  of  the  closing 
session  of  the  public  winter  meeting  there  is  probably  not  a 
quorum  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  present.  I have  no 
doubt  the  Board  of  Agriculture  at  its  annual  meeting  will  be 
glad  to  discuss  this  matter,  and  take  action  upon  it  in  some 
form. 

The  Chairman.  The  chairman  understands  that  Mr. 
Bowker  moves  that  these  resolutions  be  referred  to  the 
Board  of  Agriculture. 

The  question  was  put,  and  the  motion  of  Mr.  Bowker 
declared  carried. 

The  Chairman.  Will  the  gentleman  make  any  motion 
calling  for  an  expression  of  opinion  from  the  gentlemen 
present?  The  subject  before  us  is  a very  interesting  one. 
Does  any  other  gentleman  desire  to  speak  upon  it  ? 

Mr.  . I want  simply  to  make  one  suggestion  here 

to  whatever  representatives  there  may  be  present  from  the 
different  towns  in  this  Commonwealth.  It  is  with  reference 
to  something  to  which  very  little  attention  has  been  paid  in 
the  past,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  goes ; and  that  is,  that  the 
towns  have  not  been  at  all  particular  in  the  choice  of  the 
men  whom  they  have  placed  in  charge  of  their  roads.  When 
the  citizens  of  the  towns  become  so  much  interested  in 
having  good  roads  that  they  will  see  to  it  that  they  put  the 
very  best  men  they  have  in  charge  of  their  roads,  they  will 
have  taken  one  step  towards  the  solution  of  this  question. 
I know  of  what  I speak.  We  have  had  some  experience 
in  our  town.  The  fact  is,  as  has  been  stated  here,  that  the 
man  who  can  get  the  greatest  number  of  votes  gets  the 
position  of  highway  surveyor,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it 
turns  out  that  he  is  the  very  worst  man  for  the  place  that 
could  be  found. 

Mr.  Bowker.  I think  the  gentleman  has  made  a good 
suggestion.  It  seems  to  me  that  this  Board  might  well  take 
some  of  the  money  which  it  has  been  expending  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  use  it  in  teaching  practical  road  making  to  the 
road  makers  of  the  State,  going  into  the  field  and  making 
field  demonstrations,  if  I may  so  term  them.  We  have  had  a 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


255 


great  deal  of  talk  about  field  work,  and  why  can  we  not  have 
demonstrations  in  the  field  of  the  practical  work  of  road 
building,  to  which  the  highway  surveyors  may  be  invited 
and  at  which  they  can  get  the  desired  education?  I 
have  listened  with  a great  deal  of  interest  to  the  paper 
which  has  been  read  this  afternoon,  and,  if  we  could  have 
had  before  us  on  the  platform  a section  of  a road  built 
as  it  ought  to  be  built,  with  the  required  material  shown, 
and  then  alongside  of  it  a section  of  road  built  as  it  ought 
not  to  be  built,  it  would  have  taught  us  more  than  page 
after  page  of  the  lecture.  That  is  the  kind  of  practical 
demonstration  that  we  want  in  every  department  over  which 
this  Board  presides. 

Now,  I want  to  make  one  reference  to  the  roadsides, 
because  it  is  of  interest  to  every  citizen  of  the  State  who 
owns  a farm  and  who  may  some  time  want  to  sell  it,  and 
especially  if  he  owns  a farm  in  one  of  our  beautiful  back 
country  towns.  I happen  to  have  a farm  where  I live  in  the 
summer  in  a beautiful  place  kway  up  on  the  hills.  A real- 
estate  man  came  to  me  the  other  day  here  in  Boston  and 
said,  “ I took  a gentleman  up  to  your  town  and  showed 
him  some  farms  there  for  sale,  and  I should  have  sold  him 
one  of  them  but  that  he  was  not  pleased  with  the  road- 
sides.” They  had  literally  been  ruined,  and  all  because  of  the 
thriftiness  of  the  farmers  ; for  the  town  is  a thrifty  town,  and 
every  roadside  must  be  cleared  of  brakes  and  brush,  as  they 
are  termed.  Some  of  those  very  brakes  and  brush  are  what 
I saw  this  last  summer  in  Europe,  in  some  of  the  best  green- 
houses and  gardens  which  I visited.  They  were  carried 
over  there  as  rare  specimens,  and  yet  we  are  mowing  them 
down ; and  then,  as  a gentleman  who  came  from  the  other 
side  said  to  me,  “We  bring  them  back  here  and  pay 
high  prices  for  them.”  I have  always  lived  on  a farm,  more 
or  less,  and  have  owned  one  for  a number  of  years.  I have 
been  guilty  of  recklessly  mowing  the  roadside  for  eleven 
years ; I shall  never  do  so  again.  I am  going  to  let  the 
little  elms,  the  beautiful  maples,  beeches  and  birches  which 
have  started  up,  and  got  such  a start  as  only  a natural  tree 
that  comes  from  the  seed  can  get,  — I am  going  to  weed  out 
the  rest,  — and  let  these  saplings  grow  into  beautiful  trees. 


256 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


That  is  the  way  to  plant  trees  by  the  roadside ; and,  if  we 
had  adopted  that  plan  twenty-five  years  ago,  every  road  in 
this  State  would  have  been  a beautiful  avenue,  protected  in 
summer  and  sheltered  in  winter. 

There  is  still  another  point  I want  to  touch  upon,  and 
perhaps  I shall  touch  the  manufacturers  of  road  scrapers.  I 
do  not  want  to  do  anybody  an  injustice,  but  I do  think  that 
the  road  scraper  in  unskilful  hands  is  the  worst  machine  that 
was  ever  brought  into  a town.  The  idea  of  scraping  back 
into  the  centre  of  a road  the  old  worn-out  dust  that  has  been 
ground  and  ground  for  the  last  twenty  years  into  an  impalpa- 
ble powder,  and  calling  it  a road,  is  absurd.  It  makes  that 
same  kind  of  mud  that  we  have  been  talking  about  this  after- 
noon. Up  in  Concord,  Mass.,  they  do  things  pretty  well. 
They  teach  us  philosophy,  and  they  have  taught  us  something 
about  road  making.  Up  there  they  have  got  some  pretty 
good  roads,  and  they  make  them  by  carting  the  worn-out 
material  away  and  then  carting  in  fresh  gravel,  and  their 
roads  are  among  the  best  that  you  will  find  in  the  State. 
They  employ  as  road  commissioners  three  of  the  best  men 
in  the  town,  and  one  of  them,  I think,  is  an  engineer.  I 
think  the  suggestion  of  the  gentleman  on  my  left  is  one  of 
the  best  that  has  been  made  here.  Get  the  right  men,  and 
then,  when  we  get  the  right  men,  this  Board  some  day  will 
help  to  teach  them  how  to  do  their  work  properly. 

The  Chairman.  There  are  two  speakers  present,  one  of 
whom  comes  from  the  most  beautiful  locality,  perhaps,  that 
I know  of.  I enjoy  it  every  time  I see  it,  and  I do  not  see 
it  often  enough.  The  roadsides  have  no  fences ; there  are 
beautiful  trees  and  nice  houses.  I refer  to  the  town  of 
Greenfield.  We  have  a gentleman  with  us  who  always 
entertains  us,  and  we  are  always  delighted  to  hear  from  him. 
1 wish  Mr.  Grinnell  would  say  something  to  us  on  the  sub- 
ject of  doing  away  with  wayside  fences. 

Mr.  Grinnell.  I am  afraid,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  you  have 
“ waked  up  the  wrong  passenger.”  Doing  away  with  fences 
is  prevailing  to  a considerable  extent.  In  a village  where  a 
house  is  as  high  or  higher  than  the  street,  it  does  very  well. 
If  a house  is  not  so  high  as  the  street,  the  aesthetic  effect  is 
very  bad  ; the  house  does  not  look  so  well  and  the  road  does 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


257 


not  look  so  well.  Then  there  is  another  thing.  If  your 
house  stands  on  a corner  lot  in  a village  you  cannot  remove 
your  fence,  because,  if  you  do,  every  child  and  every  dog 
goes  over  your  land. 

I have  never  known  any  serious  difficulty  occurring  from 
the  removal  of  fences  along  the  country  roads.  We  have 
for  many  years  been  strict  in  regard  to  allowing  cattle  to 
run  at  large,  and  we  suffer  very  little  from  that  source.  I 
constantly  see  cattle  driven  from  one  point  to  another, 
through  streets  and  across  the  country,  and  very  seldom  is 
there  any  mischief  done.  The  men  who  drive  cattle 
are  anxious,  on  account  of  the  law  or  from  the  kindness 
of  disposition  which  is  inherent  in  every  man  who  cultivates 
the  soil,  to  take  care  of  their  cattle.  The  removal  of  fences 
is  a most  desirable  thing ; it  is  more  desirable  than  almost 
anything  else  in  the  management  of  our  farms.  If  we  could 
remove  the  interior  fences,  except  those  that  are  necessary 
to  guard  the  cultivated  land  from  our  stock,  it  would  be  of 
the  greatest  assistance  to  us  in  our  farming  operations.  It 
would  be  a very  desirable  thing  to  remove  the  fences  so  as 
to  have  clear  fields,  parallelograms  or  squares,  where  you 
can  drive  your  horses  right  up  to  where  the  fence  was,  turn 
and  come  back,  and  cut  a long,  straight  furrow.  Plough 
with  horses  with  such  a-  plough  as  you  think  best,  harrow 
the  ground  with  the  Dow  or  Randall  harrow,  then  follow  it 
with  the  Thomas  and  make  a good  seed-bed ; plant  your 
corn  (I  am  talking  about  that  particularly  now)  with  a 
corn-planter  and  cultivate  it  with  a horse-machine,  never 
putting  a hoe  into  it  except  perhaps  to  cut  down  any 
straff fflinff  weeds.  There  is  not  a farmer  who  has  an  acre 
of  cultivatable  land  in  this  State  who  cannot  raise  corn  for 
thirty  cents  a bushel.  I can  prove  that  by  better  cultivators 
than  I am.  We  pay  sixty  cents  a bushel  for  Western 
corn,  when  we  can  grow  it  here  for  thirty  cents ; but  our 
trouble  is  that  it  costs  so  much  for  labor. 

On  this  roadside  question  there  is  much  that  might  be 
said.  Mr.  Bowker  spoke  charmingly  about  having  the 
roadsides  lined  with  elms  and  the  beautiful  maple  with  its 
golden  leaves,  and  I,  too,  admire  to  see  them ; but  I declare 
that  if  I have  got  to  take  with  them  the  yellow  daisy,  the 


258 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


wild  carrot,  and  every  one  of  those  pestilent  weeds  or 
bushes  that  grow  by  our  roadsides  and  ought  to  be  mowed 
down,  I hesitate.  No,  I do  not  hesitate.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  legislation  in  New  York  which  makes  it  a 
penal  offence  for  a man  to  allow  weeds  to  grow  by  his 
roadside,  like  thistles  and  sedges  and  the  wild  carrot,  which 
is  one  of  the  most  pernicious  things,  is  commendable.  The 
cultivation  of  our  roadsides  is  a beautiful  thing.  I have 
been  president  of  the  rural  club  in  our  beautiful  village  of 
Greenfield,  and  we  take  care  of  our  highways.  We  keep 
them  clean.  We,  by  direct  action  or  by  personal  influence, 
persuade  the  people  who  own  premises  by  the  side  of  the 
road  to  keep  them  nicely.  During  the  summer  season  we 
do  not  allow  any  papers  or  rubbish  of  any  kind  to  remain 
in  the  streets.  Our  trees  are  trimmed  up.  We  set  out 
every  year  two  or  three  hundred  trees  on  the  streets  leading 
from  the  village, — elms  and  maples;  and  at  about  this 
season  of  the  year  we  engage  a good,  judicious  man,  with 
one  or  two  assistants,  to  trim  all  the  trees  of  the  village 
streets,  unless  there  be  objection  by  the  land  owners,  which 
seldom  occurs.  Our  new  trees  that  are  six,  eight  or  ten 
years  old,  were  set  out,  as  you  know  the  custom  is  (and 
perhaps  that  is  the  true  way  to  set  out  a tree),  when  they 
were  two,  three  or  four  inches  in  diameter,  simply  saplings, 
and  allowed  to  start  from  the  top.  In  the  course  of  time 
they  make  beautiful  trees.  The  little  branches  that  come 
out  from  the  stalk  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  high,  growing  in  all 
directions,  horizontally  and  often  downward,  should  be 
trimmed  off,  and  the  tree  gradually  trimmed  up  until  you 
get  a regular  form,  not  less  than  twelve  feet  from  the 
ground.  That  throws  the  sap  up  into  the  top ; and  it  is 
astonishing  how  quickly  you  can  make  a beautiful  tree  if 
the  trimming  is  properly  done.  That  is  what  we  do  every 
autumn,  as  being  the  most  convenient  time. 

The  Chairman.  Gentlemen,  we  have  invited  here  repre- 
sentatives from  the  carriage  industries  of  Boston.  Is  there 
anybody  here,  from  those  industries,  interested  in  roads? 
Is  there  anybody  representing  the  horse  industry,  interested 
in  roads  ? Is  there  anybody  here  representing  the  popular 
machine  of  the  day,  the  bicycle  ? Apparently  not. 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


259 


Gentlemen,  we  have  heard  from  Connecticut,  we  have 
heard  from  Massachusetts  pretty  thoroughly ; we  have  not 
heard  from  our  sister  State  of  Maine.  Perhaps  Dr. 
Twitchell  may  have  a word  or  two  to  say  on  this  subject. 

Dr.  G.  M.  Twitchell.  Mr.  Chairman,  I received  with 
the  programme  of  these  meetings  an  invitation  from  the  secre- 
tary of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  to  come  up  if  possi- 
ble and  enjoy  them  with  the  rest,  and  I at  once  began  to 
make  preparations  to  come.  I did  not  come  to  talk.  I have 
a very  good  friend  down  in  Maine  who  has  lived  with  me 
almost  twenty-two  years,  and  her  advice  has  never  hurt  me. 
About  the  last  thing  she  said  to  me  was,  44  Now,  don’t  bore 
them  by  talking.”  If  I do,  Mr.  Chairman,  you  must  take 
the  responsibility. 

I am  going  to  ride  nearly  all  night  to-night,  because  I 
wanted  to  be  here  and  hear  this  question  discussed,  and  I 
remained  this  afternoon  to  enjoy  it.  It  seems  to  me  that  in 
the  last  half-hour  we  have  been  getting  down  to  the  heart  of 
things.  Mr.  Chairman,  can  I “talk  plain?”  An  old  man 
in  our  State  said  to  us  one  day,  44  I have  been  having  a talk 
with  one  of  my  neighbors,  and  I guess  I talked  plain.” 
‘ 4 What  did  you  say  ? ” “I  talked  very  plain.”  4 4 What  did 
you  say?”  44  Well,  I told  him  his  women  folks  will  steal.” 
Now,  the  trouble  with  us  in  the  State  of  Maine  is,  that  the 
very  men  who  would  be  helped  most  by  better  roads  are  the 
men  who  prevent  better  roads.  How?  They  go  into  town 
meetings,  and  as  a unit  they  stand  up  and  vote  down  any 
proposition  to  make  the  highway  tax  a money  tax.  Do  you 
do  that  in  Massachusetts?  (A  voice,  — 44  No.”)  Then  what 
I was  going  to  say  will  not  apply  to  you.  If  you  have 
got  away  from  that  you  have  got  away  from  one  of  the 
greatest  evils  we  have  to  contend  with.  They  insist  upon 
having  the  right  and  privilege  of  working  out  their  highway 
tax,  and  we  all  know  what  that  work  so  often  amounts 
to.  Then  comes  in  the  other  evil  to  which  the  gentleman 
on  my  left  alluded,  and  that  is,  the  selection  of  men  as 
surveyors  who  are  not  fitted  for  the  work.  Now,  I never 
would  hire  a minister  to  go  into  a blacksmith  shop 
and  shoe  my  horse ; and  yet  I fancy  that  here  in  Massa- 
chusetts you  have  been  hiring  men  to  take  charge  of  your 


260 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


roads  who  were  as  utterly  incapable  of  doing  that  work 
as  a minister  would  be  of  fitting  a shoe.  We  have  in  the 
State  of  Maine  to  contend  with  party  ties  and  bonds. 
“Why,”  men  say,  “ he  belongs  to  our  party,  and  we  must 
turn  the  other  man  out,  and  put  him  in  to  make  our 
roads.”  We  elect  a man  who  has  been  disappointed  in 
getting  some  political  office  that  he  wanted  and  thought  he 
ought  to  have,  make  him  highway  surveyor,  and  give  him 
twenty-five  dollars  a year  to  spend  on  the  roads.  There 
is  the  evil.  When  we  put  business  into  road  making  we 
are  going  to  have  better  roads,  and  the  only  way  to  do 
it  is  to  put  a man  at  the  head  who  understands  his 
business.  I was  glad*  to  liear  Mr.  Bowker  make  the 
remark  that  he  did  in  regard  to  having  before  us  a section 
of  road.  I felt,  all  the  time  the  speaker  was  giving  his 
admirable  address,  that,  if  he  had  only  come  with  a little 
section  of  road  in  a glass  case,  it  would  have  helped 
greatly  to  an  appreciation  of  good  road- work.  I believe 
in  object  lessons  in  teaching.  That  is  what  we  are  trying 
to  do  in  our  institute  work  in  our  State.  We  want  to 
have  the  type  of  the  animal  or  object  before  us  about 
which  we  are  talking.  If  we  could  have  had  a section 
of  a well-constructed  road  and  one  of  a poorly  constructed 
road  before  us,  we  would  have  carried  home  a better 
impression  of  what  we  want  than  could  possibly  be  given 
by  any  description. 

Now,  we  do  not  like  and  do  not  emphasize  in  the  State  of 
Maine  the  idea  of  depending  so  much  upon  the  State 
government,  and  going  there  for  assistance.  We  believe  in 
the  State  fostering  its  interests  and  encouraging  its  inhabi- 
tants. I tell  you,  gentlemen,  that  we  shall  be  better  men 
when  we  have  to  depend  upon  ourselves  more.  Nothing  of 
value  in  science  or  art  has  ever  been  obtained  without  labor, 
or  ever  will  be.  I believe  that  the  policy  of  looking  to  the 
State  government  for  appropriations  to  do  this,  to  do  that, 
and  to  do  everything,  is  a bad  policy.  I like  the  law  of 
New  York,  to  which  Mr.  Grinnell  referred,  that  makes  it  a 
penal  offence  for  any  man  to  neglect  to  do  certain  things,  — 
cut  the  thistles  and  wastes,  etc.  I wish  we  could  get  such  a 


No.  4.] 


COUNTRY  ROADS. 


261 


law  through  in  the  State  of  Maine, — and  it  would  not  hurt 
Massachusetts  much. 

Now,  on  this  matter  on  the  removal  of  fences,  I venture 
to  say  that  the  farms  in  Greenfield  will  sell  to-day  for  from 
fifteen  to  twenty  per  cent  more  than  they  did  before  they 
took  away  their  roadside  fences  and  trimmed  their  trees. 
A gentleman  came  into  the  State  of  Maine  a few  years  ago 
to  buy  a farm.  I went  with  him  into  two  or  three  sections, 
and  found  a few  farms  for  sale,  none  of  which  seemed  to 
please  him.  Afterwards  I met  him,  and  he  told  me  he  had 
purchased.  I asked  him  why  he  bought  there.  He  said, 
“ Come  up,  and  I will  show  you.”  Going  into  that  section, 
I hunted  him  up  and  asked  him  again  why  he  bought  the 
place.  Said  he,  “ I will  tell  you.  The  guide-boards  at  the 
corners  of  the  roads,  the  school-houses  and  the  roadsides 
brought  me  here.”  There  was  hardly  a fence  to  be  found 
anywhere,  and  the  cultivated  fields  came  right  up  to  the 
roadsides.  Last  year  I drove  with  my  wife  through 
Aroostook  County,  and  for  miles  and  miles  I could  almost 
reach  from  the  carriage  and  pick  the  wheat  heads  and  the 
potato  blossoms.  The  fields  were  cultivated  right  up  to  the 
driveways.  There  is  a picture  in  my  mind  of  a drive  that  I 
took  with  her  a few  years  ago  through  another  section  of 
the  State  ; and  those  farms  are  not  advertised  in  the  papers 
as  being  for  sale.  We  drove  one  day  about  the  first  of 
June,  when  for  miles  and  miles  the  petals  of  the  apple- 
blossoms  were  drifting  down  on  our  heads,  and  the  air  was 
sweet  with  their  fragrance.  I assure  you  it  left  a pleasant 
impression  upon  us  both. 

Now,  these  are  the  things,  gentlemen,  which  give  value 
to  our  premises.  Gentlemen  of  Massachusetts,  I should 
tell  the  people  of  Maine,  if  I were  down  there,  that  I 
believe,  if  we  had  given  a little  more  of  our  thought,  a little 
more  of  our  attention,  to  these  questions,  and  not  spent  so 
much  time  telling  stories  around  the  corner  grocery,  or 
discussing  the  tariff,  — if  we  had  put  our  energies  into 
making  our  homes  more  attractive  and  our  roadsides  more 
beautiful,  and  to  securing  better  roads,  as  a natural  result 
the  farm  would  have  been  more  attractive  to  the  young 


262 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


people.  There  is  one  of  the  great  causes,  to  my  mind,  of 
the  difficulty  which  we  constantly  meet,  of  young  men 
objecting  so  much  to  remaining  upon  the  farm.  You  see  I 
come  back,  no  matter  what  the  topic  of  discussion  may  be, 
to  the  young  men,  because  I have  a good  deal  of  sympathy 
for  them.  1 am  a young  man  myself,  in  spite  of  gray  hairs, 
and  hope  I always  shall  be.  But  I tell  you  these  things  are 
of  great  importance  to  us  who  are  interested  in  New 
England,  believing,  as  we  do,  that  there  is  a possible  future 
brighter  and  better  for  us,  and  that  we  can  secure  more 
than  we  have  in  the  past.  In  order  to  do  this,  we  must 
come  right  down  the  a,  b,  c,  commencing  with  our  roads 
and  roadsides,  our  dooryards  and  our  homes,  and  then 
reaching  out  over  our  farms  ; and  in  that  way  I think  that 
the  question  will  solve  itself.  Let  us  never  forget  that  — 

“ God  gives  no  measure  unto  man  unless  by  meed  of  labor, 

And  cost  of  worth  has  always  been  the  closest  neighbor ; 

Up  the  broad  stairs  that  value  rears  stand  motives  beckoning  earth- 
ward, 

To  summon  men  to  nobler  spheres  and  lead  them  worthward.” 

Mr.  Grinnell.  Mr.  Chairman,  the  time  has  about 
arrived  for  the  close  of  this  meeting.  I beg  to  say,  as  one 
coming  from  the  western  part  of  the  State,  that  I think 
it  has  been  a most  successful  and  agreeable  meeting. 
I think  the  experiment  of  having  it  here  in  the  city  of 
Boston  has  proved  a good  one,  and  much  of  the  pleasure 
and  comfort  which  we  have  enjoyed  here  is  due  to  the 
generosity  of  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society. 
I therefore  move  that  the  thanks  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture 
be  hereby  tendered  to  the  officers  of  the  Massachusetts 
Horticultural  Society,  for  their  kind  attention  in  giving 
us  the  use  of  this  hall  and  the  facilities  appurtenant  to  it. 

This  motion  was  carried,  and  the  meeting  then  adjourned, 
sine  die . 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


263 


APPENDIX  TO  LECTURE  ON  COUNTRY  ROADS. 


Prepared  by  the  Author,  J.  B.  OLCOTT. 


* Illustrations  are  needed  for  a pumber  of  points  in  the  fore- 
going essay  ( and  discussion  ) , wherein  the  strictures  upon 
modern  and  bogus  engineering  will  apply  only,  let  us  hope, 
to  the  past.  Roughness  of  execution  may  be  excused  in 
images  which  are  not  intended  for  models,  but  merely  to 
suggest  ideas  that  ought  not  to  be  unfamiliar  to  any  citizen. 

To  show  progress,  history  is  useful,  and  the  inexpert 
reader  may  need  to  see  some  old  forms  of  road  making, 
designed  to  keep  local  labor  busy,  we  may  think. 


Those  banks  of  earth  were  to  be  crowned  with  hedges, 
and  the  scheme  for  a road  was  a survival  from  the  fortifica- 
tions of  walled  cities,  applied  to  the  highway  borders  of 
English  farms.  With  laws  made  and  provided,  it  is  no  new 
thing  for  engineers  to  contrive  plans  for  wringing  money 
and  property  from  those  who  have  such,  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  have  neither. 

The  following  more  elaborate  plan,  from  Gillespie, 
“ Roads  and  Railroads,”  1858,  taken,  probably,  from  some 
older  book, — shows  growth  in  grace,  but  the  acute  reader 
will  see  about  nine  troublesome  angles  on  each  side  that  are 
unnecessary. 


These  are  relics  of  the  abolished  feudal  ages.  Let  us 

* Seventeen  of  these  illustration's  were  shown  to  the  convention  in  large  cartoons. 


264 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


beware  of  feuds  from  new  feudalities.  To  show  that 
engineering  is  not  immutable,  but  will  change,  like  other 
arts,  for  its  bread  and  butter,  this  cross-section  of  Telford’s 
celebrated  Holyhead  road  is  given  from  Gillespie  : — 


Whether  Telford  actually  did  line  the  road-bottom  of 
Holyhead  Pike  with  larger  stones  set  up  on  end  as  above, 
without  puddling  and  packing  them  solid  in  fine  gravel  or 
sand , over  undrained  clays , will  not  be  known  unless  cuts 
across  his  old  work  are  made  to  show  exactly  how  it  was 
done.  But  any  one  who  thinks  about  it  must  see  that,  if 
the  bottom  course  of  stone  was  full  of  crevices,  over  wet 
loam  or  clay,  the  soil  would  be  forced  up  to  fill  the  crevices, 
and  the  stone  would  have  to  go  down  under  the  weight  of 
wheels,  leaving  corresponding  depressions  on  the  finished 
surface,  and  making  a rough  road. 

Aside  from  the  above  question,  Telford  may  have  had 
two  practical  advantages  in  that  bottom  course  of  large 
stone. 

First,  He  could  use  hard  or  soft,  tough  or  brittle  rubbish 
stone  from  fields  or  quarries  that  had  little  value  for  any- 
thing else. 

Second,  The  chipping,  trimming  and  setting  up  of  rough 
stone  in  that  formal  way,  if  it  enabled  Telford  to  call  in  and 
pay  a sort  of  skilled  labor,  paviors  and  the  like,  he  thus 
secured  a large  following  to  sound  his  praises.  The  same 
conditions  exist  now. 

We  have  in  some  sections  immense  quantities  of  tough, 
laminate,  quarry  rubbish  and  field  stones,  that  cannot  be 
easily  broken  by  hand  or  machine.  These  may  be  stuffed 
in  the  deep  bottom  of  a road-bed  or  dumped  in  a slough- 
hole  to  get  rid  of  them,  no  doubt,  and,  with  plenty  of  sand 
and  gravel  filling,  will  help  hold  up  a smooth  road.  But 
what  needs  to  be  dinned  and  repeated  in  the  public,  tax- 
paying  ear,  is,  that,  no  matter  in  whose  name  or  by  what 
system  these  rubbish  and  waste  stone  are  set  up  in  a 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


265 


“porous  drainage  layer,”  no  smooth  wheeling  can  result. 
Nature  abhors  vacuums  in  the  foundations  of  a road,  as  the 
public  will  when  it  fully  understands  how  the  fine  top  finish 
slowly  rattles  into  the  open-work  bottom,  leaving  a rough 
surface  for  travel. 

The  popular  mind  is  so  confused  concerning  so-called 
“Telford”  and  “Macadam”  roads,  that  some  things  are 
done  which  would  be  funny  were  they  not  so  horribly 
serious  in  their  consequences.  We  have  seen  “ Telford  ” road 
tried  with  the  big  stone  rip-rapped,  sloping  or  “shingled” 
in  this  way,  under  the  wealthiest  municipal  engineering : — 


The  above  section  is,  of  course,  lengthwise  of  the  road. 
Seeing  that  “regular  Telford  stone”  (as  administered  in 
New  England),  when  struck  by  loaded  wheels,  would  drop 
into  clay,  all  that  will  give  room  for  while  softened  by  water 
and  frost,  some  “ practical  man ’’designed  this  scheme  to 
prevent  the  trouble  by  friction.  On  this  road  maybe  the 
travel  should  be  all  one  way  ! 

Some  other  “ practical  man,”  and  a person  of  considerable 
energy  and  resolution,  no  doubt,  discovering  that  neither 
of  the  above  methods  were  good  for  anything  as  practiced , — 
though  either  might  stand  if  built  solid, — concluded  it  was 
just  as  well  to  throw  the  bottom  stone  down  flat,  and  helter- 
skelter  on  the  clay,  since  he  always  found  them  dislocated 
in  his  old  street  diggings.  The  following  is  a fair  sample  of 
his  best  work  on  this  plan,  after  one  open  winter : — 


The  surface  of  the  above  cross-section  is  too  smooth.  No 
doubt  the  steam  roller  would  do  such  work  as  that  much 
temporary  good ; but  can  we  afford  to  build  roads  or  streets 
that  are  constantly  settling,  and  give  them  up  entirely  to 


266 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


steam  roller  perambulations?  Yet  it  is  believed  some 
thousands  of  miles  of  that  kind  of  road  have  been  made  in 
American  cities  and  towns  in  their  vicinity.  The  method 
has  been  very  popular,  and  we  have  scarcely  begun  to  look 
into  it.  In  the  country  it  is  now  being  translated  in  real 
life,  on  precisely  the  following  plan  : — 


dJ&e  iCo'/rid  Yrwnde/o  artid 

Ud> 

O — St(rri/Lj  JHuJbc/= jxoy'r^  , 


■ & • V 

^QmxiT^tat Sterna  feud,  //rv  7 Tt  iaxL !! 


-r  c. -- 


The  above  picture  is  taken  by  permission  from  the  report 
of  the  Connecticut  Board  of  Agriculture  for  1887.  The 
town  where  that  hopeless  work  was  done,  without  local 
remark,  is  now  afflicted  by  street  railways. 

Engineers  are  giving  us  “ Telford-Macadam,”  and  popu- 
lar ideas  of  macadamizing  roads  are  equally  mixed.  None 
of  our  great  cyclopedias  are  clear  on  the  subject  of  “roads.” 
Zell’s  (Philadelphia)  has  this  to  say : — 

Macadamizing.  ( Engin .)  A method  of  road-making  charac- 
terized by  breaking  the  stone  so  small  that  they  may  form,  when 
covered  with  a layer  of  earth,  a smooth,  solid  mass,  — so  named 
after  the  inventor,  Jas.  MacAdam,  a native  of  Scotland,  1756- 
1836. 

How  can  a reading  people  know  about  road  making  while 
our  books  cram  one  sentence  with  so  many  misstatements  as 
that  sentence  has? 

A State  secretary  of  education,  having  some  roads  to 
make,  addressed  the  writer  in  exactly  these  words  : “ Your 
way  of  making  roads,  as  I understand  it,  is  to  dig  a trench, 
fill  it  with  stones,  and  cover  them  with  dirt.”  Hence  our 
pains  in  this  “appendix”  are  not  altogether  idle. 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


267 


The  use  of  broken  stone  in  layers  of  assorted  sizes  over 
an  arched  foundation  of  earth  has  been  recommended  by 
engineering  writers  and  practiced  on  an  innocent  public 
in  various  places.  The  theory  seems  to  be  that  these 
assorted  stones,  smaller  above  the  larger  to  the  top,  will 
shut  into  one  another  with  a telescoping  effect  under  the 
pressure  of  travel,  and  so  become  very  solid.  Let  us  see 
how  this  idea  looks  in  a picture  : — 


U* i ^ ****■  w % 


1 tfir/c*.. 

C4  {j'CLcLaw* 


The  foregoing  plan,  substantially  as  represented,  was 
faithfully  tried  with  screened  broken  rock  by  a city  operator 
under  my  own  observation,  With  barrows  and  planks  each 
class  of  stone  was  nicely  placed  by  itself  in  layers  to  the 
top.  In  the  words  of  an  eye  witness,  4 4 The  first  four-horse 
load  that  ran  over  it  knocked  our  whole  summer’s  work  to 
smithereens!”  It  had  been  heavily  hand-rolled, — that 
arch  made  the  road  weaker,  more  tottering ; but  perhaps  a 
steam  roller,  with  sections  as  big  as  the  moon,  would  have 
telescoped  those  stone  or  ground  them  to  powder. 

Man  is  a terribly  ingenious  animal.  In  his  pupae  stages 
he  builds,  spins  and  surrounds  himself  with  cocoons  of 
devices  which  he  may  cast  off  and  emerge  with  wings. 
Everything  l^e  does  is  temporary,  but  worthy  of  study. 
His  deeds  need  not  be  worshipped  except  as  that 
strengthens  the  understanding.  Many  of  his  works  will  be 
simplified  if  we  consider  that  he  is  an  industrious  creature, 
and  often  don’t  know  what  to  do  with  his  time  or  money. 
What  he  will  do,  when  once  his  attention  is  fully  turned  to 
country  roads,  may  surpass  all  his  other  enterprises.  He 
scarcely  realizes,  yet,  how  wide  and  round  the  world  is ; 
how  many  of  him  there  are  working,  and  how  his  labor, 
ever  to  amount  to  anything,  must  not  be  done  at  cross 
purposes. 

Mud  on  the  top  of  stone  is  a common  occurrence  with 
ignorant  and  blundering  “macadam,”  as  is  the  throwing  of 


268 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.Doc. 


retaining  walls  from  the  swelling  of  clay  by  frost.  The  next 
picture  is  no  fancy  sketch.  It  fairly  represents  parts  of  the 
“elevated”  road  between  Hartford  and  East  Hartford, 
Conn.,  and  is  equally  a criticism  on  the  engineering  of 
eithei*  side  or  end  of  the  Connecticut  River  : — 


O G C ' t1 
C 


(mXiV-ZIsLA, 

yrtJuo  'irrrffc  , 

Lo^i^  axl/^  ' J 

t£j&  ?r*£6 
cloc^C  rvcjtd  &0T*>*d*+*t 


m /?W; 


The  above  instance  is  fully  noticed  in  “A  Move  for  Better 
Roads”  (H.  C.  Baird  & Co.,  Philadelphia),  pages  111  and 
112,  and  a remedy  is  suggested : “In  this  case  sand  is 
cheap  and  convenient,  while  stone  must  be  brought  long 
distances.  What  else  can  we  do  but  plant  a rock  crusher  on 
that  causeway,  lift  the  stones  and  break  them  fine  enough  to 
fill  their  own  crevices,  bedding  them  solid  and  rain-tight  on 
sand  enough  to  keep  the  clay  still  ? ” 

Coal  ashes  have  been  tried  on  that  road  since  the  quoted 
paragraph  was  written.  Doubtless  the  trial  was  not  thorough, 
for  the  mud  continues  to  come  up  smiling  in  travellers’ 
faces. 

On  long  stretches  of  loamy  land,  hastily  rounded  up, 
without  thorough  drainage,  to  receive  a coat  of  conventional 
“ macadam,”  we  see  the  same  old  foolishness  working,  as 
may  be  well  shown  in  a couple  of  sketches,  such  as  should 
appear  on  every  common  school  black-board  right  away. 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


269 


The  sequel — after  a couple  of  freezing  and  thawing 
winters — is  not  so  pleasant. 


ClgctA*. 


Wo 


tlidJoUM,  Pasj  feenr  jCooxA. 


The  too  common  “ remedy  ” for  the  conditions  above  is  to 
dump  in  more  stone  and  dig  out  the  gutters  to  throw  on  top. 
After  awhile  the  stones  will  begin  to  ooze  out  with  the  mud 
of  the  gutters,  and  by  a foolish  public  they  can  be  used  over 
and  again. 

Road  scrapers  would  be  more  nearly  adorable  if  once  in 
awhile  the  men  who  run  them  did  not  destroy  better  foot- 
paths than  they  make,  and  if  they  were  not  so  fond  of  their 
scraping  that  they  can’t  bear  to  leave  a stretch  of  sandy  road 
untouched,  while  they  know  well  that  flushing  ruts  with 
worn-out  stuff,  just  fit  for  hens  to  dust  in,  only  makes  the 
poor-enough  wheeling  heavier.  As  we  have  seen  three 
generations  of  the  same  family  of  road-menders,  doing  these 
naughty  things,  we  put  in  a cartoon  for  their  edification : — 


270 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


When  once  such  soils  are  nicely  graded,  what  is  left  then 
but  sand,  gutter- wash  or  muck  for  the  scraper  to  bite  at  ? 
Road  scrapers  work  best  where  the  soil  bakes  quickly  in 
spring,  and  is  hard,  gravelly  and  stubborn ; not  where  the 
ground  can  be  stirred  easily  in  any  open  month ; there  is  the 
place  for  carting  better  road  material.  Forehanded  and 
alert  road-men  used  to  keep  two  or  three  furrows  of  fresh 
soil  or  subsoil  mellowing  in  the  bottom  or  outside  of  gut- 
ters, to  turn  upon  the  highway  after  a month  or  two,  and 
not  bump  themselves  with  tough  sods  in  the  road  when  they 
drove  to  meeting  or  market. 

There  is  a great  deal  of  private  road  iniquity.  Promising 
children  of  smart  parents  — in  lack  of  clean  brooks  to  play 
in — are  spoiled  for  being  good  road  judges  when  they  are 
quite  small,  by  sailing  boats  during  showery  weather  in  the 
gutter  walk,  constantly’ruined  by  the  garden  rake  and  water. 


U IHT.H,  S' A J ’ T*  y.  \ ^ 


Ten  two-horse  loads  of  good  foot-path  or  walk-gravel,  of 
a red  sandstone  character,  and  without  pebbles,  were  laid  in 
the  private  road  to  the  writer’s  door,  three  years  ago,  for 
experiment.  The  worn,  sandy  loam  and  subsoil  the  gravel 
was  laid  on  is  about  as  fine  as  snuff  for  twenty  feet  in  depth. 
For  more  than  two  years  this  fine  gravel  refused  to  pack.  A 
rain  would  settle  it  hard,  but  directly  it  would  work  up 
mealy  again,  and  was  the  cause  of  much  local  criticism. 
During  last  summer  this  short  strip  of  road  was  ballasted  at 
different  times,  with  no  more  than  five  or  six  barrow-loads 
of  pebbles  picked  from  the  garden.  The  most  of  these  were 
as  small  as  English  walnuts.  Some  were  so  large  as  to  need 


breaking  on  the  spot  after  they  were  spread,  and  all  were 
precisely  the  kind  of  pebbles  that  are  often  raked  up  and 
shovelled  away,  with  weeds  and  turf-trimmings,  by  ill-trained 
gardeners,  to  make  piles  of  rubbish  close  to  their  composts. 
The  road  has  since  become  hard  and  smooth,  and  the  grass 
edges  are  growing  into  the  gravel. 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS  — APPENDIX. 


271 


Private  roads  and  avenues  of  the  “ gutter- walk ’’pattern  are 
out  of  place.  In  cities,  with  houses  close  together,  gutter 
walks  and  roads  may  be  unavoidable,  and  they  should 
be  paved ; but  in  the  country,  where  there  is  room  enough, 
walks  and  roads  should  be  raised  and  rounded.  This 
prevents  mud,  dust  and  ice.  Instead  of  being  lower, 
their  centres  and  entire  breadth  should  be  higher,  than 
the  bordering  grass.  In  the  best  private  work  the  edges 
of  roads  and  walks  will  blend  imperceptibly  in  grade 
with  the  turf,  which  should  take  the  watershed  of  the 
travelled  ways  at  once.  It  is  precisely  so  with  the 
finished  country  road.  Highway  means  high  way.  If 
we  relieve  our  gardeners  and  road  makers  ,from  their  mis- 
chievous use  of  the  garden  rake  on  our  gravel  ways,  they 
will  have  more  time  to  kill  weeds  and  nourish  grass.  Where 
so  much  is  to  be  done,  misdirected  labor  is  simply  wicked. 

In  villages  we  suffer  with  dust,  and  handle  too  much 
worthless  street  mud.  Except  in  crowded  city  thorough- 
fares, mud  and  dust  might,  with  due  knowledge  of  grass,  be 
removed  occasionally  and  nicely  from  rural  and  suburban 
gutters  in  the  form  of  fine  turf,  and  have  the  highest  market 
value  in  that  form.  Instead  of  dusty  and  muddy  street- 
fronts,  adjoining  residents  might  run  their  lawn-mowers  on 
easy  slopes  quite  to  the  verge  of  wheel  tracks.  We  occa- 
sionally see  neat  and  painstaking  householders  doing  that 
already.  We  have  only  to  be  agreeable,  and  convene  to 
make  that  a welcome  fashion.  Grass  gutters  shed  water 
from  the  road.  Mud  does  not. 

By  the  fine  wash  and  occasional  dust  of  ever  so  solid  and 
narrow  roads,  bordering  and  gutter  turf  will  gradually  become 
too  hiodi  from  the  continual  accretion  of  fine  material.  To 

O 

lift  this  turf  handsomely  and  profitably  turf-paring  machines 
are  needed.  Perfect  turf-cutters  have  been,  can  be  and  are 
made  and  sold.  To  enforce  this  idea,  a contrivance  of  the 


272 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


writer’s  own  — not  the  best  — is  introduced  here.  With  the 
use  of  it  he  has  cut,  carted  a mile  and  laid  seventy-five  two- 
horse  loads  of  turf  a day,  at  the  cost  of  good  loam. 


Broad-tired  carts  for  making  roads  need  special  attention 
here,  because  the  road  making  fraternity  looks  coldly  at  the 
idea,  since  broad  wheels  may  add  to  the  cost  of  their  outfit. 
The  public  will  count  the  cost  of  rolling  work  with  its  car- 
riages which  the  maker  can’t  drive  over,  and  the  discerning 
public  will  estimate  the  value  and  service  of  roads  which  are 
built  on  narrow  tires  at  their  true  worth, — generally  nothing, 
oftener  less  than  nothing. 

But  tow,ns  and  private  individuals,  who  are  able  and  see 
their  way  clearly,  can  and  have  taken  up  broad  cart  wheels, 
so  that  they  are  being  slowly  introduced.  They  were  always 
known  in  parts  of  New  England.  Many  neaps  of  ox  carts 
have  been  cut  off,  the  wheels  furnished  with  wide  rims  and 
tires,  a pair  of  forward  wheels  and  tongue  added  for  horses. 
Possibly  fifty  of  these  double  teams  can  be  mustered  within 
five  miles  of  the  writer’s  door. 

Ox  carts  are  shorter  and  handier:  but  a still  shorter  rig 
for  a pair  of  horses  is  shown  here,  as  well  worth  our  patron- 
age, where  much  road  and  earth  work  is  to  be  done.  A 
one-horse  cart  is  often  too  weak,  and  a four-wheeled  dump 
awkward  and  cumbersome  in  a gravel  or  stone  pit.  A 
single-horse  cart  should  have  five-inch  tires.  Tires  for  two- 
horse  or  ox  carts  should  be  at  least  six  inches  wide. 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


273 


With  all-leather  harness,  the  writer  has  shifted  two  horses 
from  single  carts  to  the  plough  or  scraper  inside  of  three 
minutes.  This  change  is  often  convenient  in  road  repairs, 
or  any  grading  of  earth  whatever. 

At  one  time  it  is  said  fifty  two-horse  dumps,  on  single  pairs 
of  wheels,  were  in  use  in  Canaan,  Conn.  With  three  shafts 
of  tough,  springy  white  oak,  and  all  leather  harness,  dis- 
carding too  heavy  pads,  the  two-horse  cart  may  be  the  short- 
est and  most  convenient  strong  road  team  in  existence. 
Schools  of  design  should  proceed  at  once  with  fear  and 
trembling  to  work  out  the  details  of  this  conception. 

The  village  cart,  for  one  horse,  sketched  below,  is  built 
and  used  with  satisfaction  in  South  Manchester,  Conn.  The 
felloes  and  tires  are  five  to  six  inches  wide,  and  the  axle- 
tree  is  bent  to  carry  the  body  conveniently  low  for  heavy  or 
light  loading.  Flaring  sideboards  give  capacity  for  strawy 
manure,  leaves,  etc. 


t 


274 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


Surface  water  in  crossing  finished  roads  of  the  best  charac- 
ter and  workmanship  may  be  conducted  from  grass  to  grass 
without  any  washing  at  all.  The  following  sketch  shows 
this,  which  we  may  well  call  “The  American  Plan”  — 
adapted  to  a side-hill : — 


(J  titJJA.  G O-tAj  P-tc 


tS?SLO-^sW\ Jj 


= rtAX»Xvv,  VK*2*±. 


ht^\ 


We  have  plenty  of  iron  pipes  for  almost  every  other  pur- 
pose, but  nothing  with  connections  fit  for  this  business. 
Iron  men  and  pattern  makers  should  study  these  points  at 
once. 

It  is  a common  thing  to  pay  a hundred  dollars  for  a stone 
culvert,  where  there  is  not  room  enough,  so  that  a hillock  is 
made  in  the  road,  or  the  culvert  soon  chokes  with  mud. 

Flat  gratings  clog  with  sticks  and  leaves,  and,  when  cut 
into  a flat  stone  over  brick  silt-basins,  they  cost  much 
trouble  as  well  as  money.  If  removed  for  any  reason,  the 
labor  is  lost ; while,  if  we  had  several  sizes  of  iron  pipes  and 
connections,  the  second-hand  metal  would  be  as  good  as 
new  in  some  place.  Cast  iron  doesn’t  rot. 

It  should  be  generally  known  that,  for  the  surface  drainage 
of  sudden  thaws,  when  the  earth  is  covered  with  sposh,  deep 
pipes  in  the  frozen  ground  are  good  for  nothing.  They  are 
too  cold.  Only  cast  iron  pipe  will  endure  being  brought 
near  the  surface  of  a road  where  it  can  feel  the  warmth  of 
the  weather  producing  the  thaw. 

Many  of  our  wooden  bridges  over  small  streams  and  rivu- 
lets might  well  be  turned  under  the  road  in  pipes  of  suitable 
size,  arranged  as  follows.  The  lips  or  flanges  of  cast  iron, 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


275 


both  turned  in,  would  hold  them  in  place,  if  thoroughly 
packed  in  gravel,  after  the  wrought  iron  bolts  are  rusted 
out. 


For  many  culverts,  inlets  and  outlets,  flattened  and  divi- 
ded to  fit  the  slopes  of  the  road,  would  be  smoother  and 
more  comely,  requiring  less  to  be  hidden  by  garden  or  wild 
shrubs. 


The  smaller  sizes  of  these  pipes  would  be  much  used  in 
parks,  cemeteries,  private  grounds  and  wherever  it  is  under- 
stood that  surface  water  causes  more  than  half  the  expense 
of  road  repairs.  Pipe-makers  will  do  better  to  study  the 
predicament  our  common  roads  are  in,  rather  than  these 
hasty  sketches.  The  old  iron  lying  unused  about  the  country 
would  furnish  all  the  stock  a founder  would  need  to  begin 
with. 

We  fail  to  realize  how  destitute  the  country  is  of  special 
hand  implements  for  road  making.  For  their  needs  our 
sires  were  better  provided  with  tools  a hundred  years  ago. 
In  the  craze  of  railway  building  and  wholesale  <nachinery  we 
have  forgotten  hand  tools.  Only  a few  years  ago  profes- 
sional men  — clergymen  — were  asking,  4 4 What  has  agri- 
culture to  do  with  road  making  ? ” The  amateur  road  maker, 
in  these  days  has  to  begin  with  his  naked  hands.  The 
44  amateur,”  by  the  way,  is  a person  who  does  things  for  the 
love  of  doing  them.  The  greatest  names  in  history  apply  to 
those  who  did  first  what  made  them  famous  for  the  love  of 
it.  The  professional  is  a hireling. 

Mechanics  who  can  design  and  make  special  road  tools 
have  gone  from  the  country.  Great  machine  shops  refuse  to 


276 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


touch  new  patterns  unless  ordered  by  the  thousand  dozen. 
Farmers  supply  themselves  at  each  other’s  auctions,  take  the 
degenerate  things  in  market,  or  go  without.  The  best  of 
that  class  of  people  mean  to  see  their  way  clearly  before 
going  into  anything.  It  is  good  for  the  nation  that  farmers 
move  slowly  and  surely.  Now  we  may  be  certain  they  are 
framing  their  minds  for  better  hand  road  tools,  to  finish 
corners  and  edges  of  the  roadside  which  machines  can’t 
touch.  They  are  short  of  money,  and  must  begin  with  their 
hands  as  was  done  in  M’ Adam’s  time. 

A suggestion  for  a hand-roller-pick,  to  fit  the  surface  of 
old  stone-roads  to  receive  new  metal,  is  made  here  : — 


Something  like  the  above  has  been  used  in  hard  ditch 
bottoms.  The  same  idea  is  applied  on  some  steam  rollers. 
It  is  to  be  rolled  across  the  highway  to  break  and  roughen 
the  hard  old  surface,  or  the  road  making  hands  may  use 
pick-axes  at  intervals,  while  they  are  waiting  for  material. 

Writers  have  said  that  M’Adam  was  opposed  to  carts  with 
broad  tires.  This  is  contrary  to  the  truth.  Before  his  time 
mechanic  monstrosities  were  as  possible  as  they  are  now. 
There  were  bounties  by  the  inch  on  the  width  of  cart-wheels, 
given  in  the  form  of  exemption  from  tolls.  Very  heavy 
wagons  were  in  use,  and  immense  loads  of  freight  were 
hauled  to  cheapen  transportation  on  toll  roads.  Somebody 
contrived  a curious  conical  wheel,  sixteen  inches  wide,  which 
M’Adam  condemned  before  the  committee  of  Parliament, 
because  it  was  full  of  spike-heads,  dragged  on  the  shortest 
side,  and  injured  the  roads. 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


277 


M’Adam  hated  the  absurd  and  conical  wheel  manufactured 
by  the  greedy  transportation  companies  of  his  time,  but 
approved  the  flat  tread  of  the  other.  It  is  always  well  to 
range  from  landmarks  in  the  past  to  see  how  we  are  getting 
on. 

Here  we  bring  in  some  small,  special  road  tools : a new 
digging-hoe  with  knob  or  44  D ” handle,  that,  if  well  made, — 
so  universal  is  its  application, — would  sell  at  sight  in  China, 
or  any  part  of  the  world.  With  it  strong  and  expert  men 
can  fill  fifty  to  one  hundred  cart-loads  of  rooty  earth  in  a 
day. 


4 4 Why  don’t  farmers  clean  up  their  roadsides  ? ” is  often 
asked.  What  tools  have  they  — for  instance — for  trimming 
to  a feather-edge,  the  abrupt  banks  gouged  by  44  the  bullet- 
headed road-mender  ” in  front  of  their  bar- ways  and  doors  ? 
Will  the  spade,  or  the  round-point,  or  broad  mouthed  shovel 
do  it?  Try  them,  and  see. 

Are  our  agricultural  schools  and  experiment  stations  com- 
bining to  study  out  and  patronize  better  hand  tools,  to  the 
end  that  the  country  may  be  better  equipped?  Not  much. 
They  are  willing  to  4 4 test  ” the  tools  in  the  market  when- 
ever they  are  presented  to  them ; but,  as  for  original  inves- 


278 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


tigations  of  hand  tools  for  road  making  or  agriculture 
generally,  with  few  exceptions  it  is  believed  they  are  giving 
more  patronage  to  factories  of  fire-arms,  fish-rods,  weedy 
lawn-tennis  and  base-ball  equipments.  Of  course  we  expect 
much  good  from  the  more  generous  culture  of  our  youth  in 
out-of-door  sports ; but  why  not,  with  fit  and  even  ele- 
gantly fit  tools  for  hand  labor,  let  the  good  come  right 
along?  We  need  it  now! 

Some  cities  have  discovered  that  tramps  will  break  stone 
nicely  on  the  road  when  furnished  with  lithe  hammer  handles 
as  long  as  billiard  cues.  Whip-handle  hammers  — metal 
flat-turnip  form,  of  layer  wrought,  or  cast  cast  steel  — will 
commend  themselves,  whenever  seen  and  used,  for  making 
and  maintaining  solid  and  smooth  roads.  The  knob-handle, 
working  in  the  palm  of  the  hand  like  the  pully  in  the  belt, — 
another  ball-and-socket  joint  to  the  fore-arm,  — is  half  the 
battle  with  the  labor  of  cracking  stone.  The  ordinary 
mechanic’s  hammer,  cut  with  two  faces  from  bar  steel,  is  fit 
for  the  anvil  and  work  bench ; but  a steel  swingel  and  flail- 
staff  would  be  more  fit  for  striking  blows  on  the  road.  The 
ordinary  broad,  flat  hammer  handle  of  the  mechanic,  when 
made  long  enough  to  enable  a man  to  stand  upright  and 
reach  the  road,  strains  and  cramps  the  muscles  of  the  hand 
and  wrist  intolerably.  The  great  cause  of  poverty  and 
misery  is  that  we  have  few  or  no  hand  tools  for  the  land 
which  laboring  people  would  be  proud  to  own.  Labor  is 
much  shrewder  than  we  think. 

Here  are  pull-forks  with  knob-handles,  for  overhauling 
and  assorting  stone  and  gravel,  dumped  above  grade  on  the 
head  of  the  fill  in  road  making.  These  are  indispensable  for 
solid,  smooth- wearing  and  durable  gravel- work  : — 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


279 


The  tines  of  a select  manure-hook  can  be  cut  off  and 
sharpened  so  as  to  fairly  represent  the  four-tined  imple- 
ment,— minus  the  knob-hilt.  A road  maker  needs  a grip 
for  his  tools  as  much  as  a soldier  does. 

The  five-tined  hook  is  larger  than  a potato-hook,  and  in 
these  declining,  or  let  us  hope,  gaining  days  of  home 
industry,  can  best  be  got  by  bending  the  five  tines  of  a long- 
handled  manure-fork, — if  we  can  find  a smith  who  can 
spring-temper  the  tines  again. 

A one-horse  scraper  is  introduced  here  that  is  undoubtedly 
the  keenest  grading  implement  in  the  world  for  moving  mel- 
low earth  short  distances.* 


Stone  or  gravel  road  of  the  best  possible  quality  will  wear 
and  wear  out  by  constant  friction,  especially  on  hill-roads, 
where  water  greatly  aggravates  the  picking  of  horse-shoes 
in  toe-paths,  and  the  tendency  of  wheels  and  heedless 
drivers  to  make  ruts.  Every  good  stone  man  should  hold 
to  the  idea  of  having  hill-roads  shod  and  anchored  across 
them,  with  hard-stone  curbing,  in  an  angular  form,  to  act  as 
water  bars  also,  set  fast  just  beneath  the  surface  of  the  flush 
broken  stone  or  gravel.  These  curbs  may  be  put  in  ten  to 
thirty  feet  apart,  as  may  be  necessary,  and  will  be  as  useful 
on  hill-roads  as  the  steel  toe  of  a horse-shoe  is  injurious,  — 
producing  the  happy  balance  we  are  all  seeking. 


* Thanks  to  Geo.  W.  Taft  of  Kennett  Square,  Pa. 


280 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


Here  are  suggestions  for  the  form  of  a highway  through 
flat,  arable  plains  and  pastures,  or  clay  meadows.  This 
road,  too,  requires  no  repairs  but  fine  broken  stone,  as  may 
be  needed  to  replace  the  loss  to  the  surface  by  friction,  wind 
and  water.  In  preparing  concave  road-beds,  the  best  wheel 
scrapers  may  be  of  the  greatest  use  in  skilled  hands. 


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Too  few  people  reflect  that,  if  a road  is  not  made  a little 
too  high,  it  will  be  too  low  when  it  is  used  awhile.  A very 
durable  road  must  be  shod  for  wear,  something  like  a double- 
soled  shoe.  Earthen  roads  rapidly  wash  and  blow  away, 
and  even  the  best  new  stone  work  will  settle  some.  Madam’s 
“ roof”  roads  and  “ floors  ” will  be  water-tight,  because  the 
broken  stone  is  so  close  as  to  shed  its  own  superfluous  silt, 


281 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


and  even  the  droppings  of  horses  with  the  water  of  rains. 
The  road  must  “ clean  itself,”  as  Telford  said.  There  ought 
to  be  material  for  several  years’  friction  on  top  of  the  per- 
fection of  a good  country  road,  and  thoughtful  people  must 
agree  to  that  or  roads  will  be  made  half  worn-out  to  begin 
with.  Society  has  other  urgent  cares,  and  can’t  be  always 
making  temporary  roads. 

A simple  method  of  constructing  an  excellent  cross-walk 
of  very  pebbly  gravel,  or  small  crushed  rock,  over  stone, 
gravel  or  earth  roads,  is  shown  here,  because  it  is  often 
cheaper  and  much  easier  to  get  done  than  stone  pavement ; 
less  likely  to  jolt  vehicles,  and  can  be  built  or  amended  by 
the  road  maker  or  private  parties. 

Let  us  first  sketch  the  way  broad  slabs  of  granite  are  apt 
to  work  in  a muddy  street,  when  the  women  folks  have 
dunned  the  men  long  enough  to  get  them  laid  : — 


J&ujo 


First,  the  slab  of  granite  settles  a little  under  the  banging 
it  gets  from  teams,  but  no  census  reporter  tells  how  many 
millions  of  jolted  people,  broken  eggs,  wagon  springs,  and 
commandments  are  spent  on  those  abrupt  corners,  which  are 
most  felt  in  the  stomach  when  they  strike  the  traveller  una- 
wares in  a muddy  time.  Nothing  rounds  them,  however, 
but  horse  shoes,  wheels  and  sleigh  runners,  — a slow  process. 
And,  when  the  road  is  next  mended,  the  slabs  are  buried 
with  care,  which  brings  us  to  the  second  and  “shallow 
mud  ” stage  of  the  cross  walk.  Having  experienced  those 
slabs  itself,  the  village  improvement  society  is  slow  to  raise 
them  again,  and  the  road-mender,  made  and  provided,  is 
not  the  man  to  have  crow-bars,  water-level,  stone  chisels, 
hammers,  and  loads  of  sand  with  him  when  he  is  mending 
roads,  to  raise  those  slabs  above  grade,  and  knock  the  cor- 
ners off.  So  the  next  time  he  comes  along  he  raises  the 
road  and  leaves  the  cross  walk  in  the  third  and  ‘ ‘ deep-mud 
stages.” 

It  is  but  fair  to  add  that  two  or  three  parallel  slabs  of 
granite,  a foot  wide,  with  foot  intervals  of  pebble  pavement, 


2 82 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc. 


can  be  laid  well  bedded  with  coarse  sand  or  fine  gravel,  and 
slightly  rounding  in  a cross  walk,  so  as  to  be  much  less 
objectionable  to  through  travel  than  broad  stone  flags. 

In  cities,  feather  edges  of  asphalt  and  coal  tar  supersede 
rough  stone  and  foolish  brick,  as  nice  gravel  shames  slovenly 
earth  in  the  country. 

As  a primary  lesson  in  road  making,  the  cross  walk  of 
gravel  or  broken  stone  is  worth  describing  in  detail.  The  same 
method  can  be  adapted  to  water  bars,  angular,  or  otherwise. 
Let  the  gravel  or  broken  stone  for  the  cross  walk  be  dumped 
in  place  across  the  road,  and  then  divided  into  two  contin- 
uous and  equal  lines,  two  or  three  feet  apart,  each  side  of 
the  centre  of  the  proposed  walk.  We  sketch  these  two 
operations  at  one  end  in  a pair  of  home-made  views. 


Now,  with  a potato-hook  or  close-tined  manure-fork, 
comb  all  the  larger  pebbles  or  stones  into  the  middle  space, 
in  slightly  rotund  shape,  and  well  filled  with  fine  material  to 
form  the  backbone  of  the  walk,  leaving  enough  stoneless 
gravel  to  grade  and  cover  the  whole  nicely. 


The  new  work  can  be  wet  with  a watering-pot,  and  rolled 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS— APPENDIX. 


283 


with  a broad-tired  wheelbarrow.  The  gravel  cross  walk, 
with  a backbone  in  it,  can  be  perpetuated  by  the  road- 
mender,  if  fit  for  his  place  and  he  knows  how  to  win  votes 
with  his  work. 

The  following  sectional  views  are  taken  from  the  Harris- 
burg steam  roller  circular.  They  show  how  prevalent  the 
notion  of  porous  stone  and  road  work  is.  It  directs  that 
“No  binding  must  go  on  the  foundation  course,  as  it  is 
necessary  to  be  porous , so  that  water  will  readily  pass 
through , and  for  this  reason  excessive  rolling  must  be 
avoided  at  this  stage.”  The  italics  are  ours. 


*/<?£* ~ CROSS-SECTIONS  OF  1 


No  farmer  who  is  a builder  would  accept  a section  of  this 
“ porous  ” stone  work,  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  deep,  as  a 
foundation  for  the  sill  of  a hog  pen.  How  much  more 
quickly  should  we  reject  that  kind  of  foundation  for  the 
twisting  pressure  of  loaded  wagon  wheels  ? 


284 


BOARD  OF  AGRICULTURE.  [Pub.  Doc 


Jack  Frost  will  laugh  at  the  fool-mortals  who  trust  to 
4 4 consolidated  earth  ” only  twelve  to  fifteen  inches  below 
porous  stone- work,  through  which  water  leaches  to  saturate 
the  clay. 

It  may  seem  ungracious  to  make  extracts  from  these  too 
eager  and  selfish  teachers  of  the  people.  But,  when  caught 
in  the  act  by  their  own  forward  testimony,  what  other 
remedy  have  we?  This  cut  is  from  circular  of  Gates 
Crusher,  Chicago : — 


Here  at  the  quarry  and  the  crusher  seems  to  be  the  source  of 
the  organic  porosity  which  destroys  bogus  4 4 macadam.”  Here 


No.  4.]  COUNTRY  ROADS —APPENDIX. 


285 


we  see  the  prairie  farmer  loaded  with  sink-in-the-mud  stone, 
while  pure-grit  tilling  is  reserved  for  some  fellow  who  will 
pay  more  money.  That  is  railway  ballast  left  loose  for 
knocking  out  ties  at  all  seasons.  Massachusetts  is  stuffed 
with  the  same  false  doctrine.  Cheating  and  competing  quar- 
ries and  public  workmen  saw,  when  contracts  and  piecework 
for  roads  were  suggested,  that  clay  would  swallow  more 
broken  stones  if  they  were  furnished  in  assorted  sizes,  and 
also  that  the  stone  would  measure  more.  When  will  the 
general  public  see  ? Then  we  shall  begin  to  have  better 
stone-roads. 

The  grist  of  this  whole  matter  can  be  written  in  a single 
sentence,  as  follows : How  can  a stone  raft  float  on  a 

SEA  OF  MUD  IF  WE  BUILD  IT  LEAKY? 

In  very  common  and  much  mistaken  schools  it  may  be 
necessary  to  set  up  a broken  stone  lantern  to  throw  light 
upon  our  subject,  in  this  way  : — 


